Zimbabwe to face Botswana without foreign based players
Zim minus PSL players for friendly
Posted: 2012-01-05 12:03
Zimbabwe will have to do without all their foreign based players including the dozen from the PSL that they had called up for the friendly match against Afcon finals debutants Botswana.
The match takes in Gaborone on Saturday afternoon.
AmaZulu have become the latest club to inform Zifa that all three of their players Tapuwa Kapini, Carlington Nyadombo and Ramson Zhuwawo that had been called-up will not be made available for this non-Fifa calendar date match.
"Our players are not available for that match because we haven’t given them permission," says James Dhlamini, the AmaZulu team manager.
"We have already booked their flights back for January 8 and we cannot change those dates as the coach wants all those players back at training fresh the next day. This is a non-Fifa calendar date match that falls at a time when we want all our players back to prepare for the second round. We have already informed ZIFA and their national team manager about this. We also didn’t like the idea of them travelling a very long distance from Harare to Gaborone by road," says Dhlamini.
Already nine South African based players who had been called up for the friendly have already withdrawn including veteran midfielder Tinashe Nengomasha who recently wedded his long time sweetheart Samantha Mtukudzi during the festive break.
The Warriors will now be also minus the rest of the PSL stars that they had called which includes Nyasha Mushekwi, Gilbert Mapemba, Thomas Sweswe, Jimmy Jambo, Lincoln Zvasiya, Khama Billiat, Tafadzwa Rusike and Willard Katsande for the road trip to the Botswana capital after their clubs refused to release them though they are all still on holiday in Zimbabwe.
Already Knowledge Musona, Edward Sadomba and Ovidy Karuru had pulled out leaving Zimbabwe with a hastily assembled squad of local based players for the match.
Botswana have put up camp in Rustenburg for the last couple of weeks preparing for the Afcon and will make the short road trip back to Gaborone on Friday for the match on Saturday.



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