Zimbabwe: Under-23 Korfball Team Meets SA in Qualifier Tie

Ever seen a team sport featuring men and women all on the same side in an international match?

Or a game in which players swap positions after every two goals?

Well, if one fancies such a gender-balanced sport then be in Masvingo tomorrow when the Zimbabwe Under-23 korfball team play their first international game when they meet South Africa in an African Region World Cup qualifier. The locals are through to the final qualifiers after their first round opponents, Malawi, pulled out although a Malawi Select will play a Zimbabwe Select as curtain raisers to the main game tomorrow.

South Africa are the top-ranked korfball playing nation in Africa ahead of Zimbabwe and Malawi while Ghana and Lesotho have also taken up the unique sport whose origins are in The Netherlands. Korfball is a game of mixed basketball, handball and netball on a field similar to a basketball court with players scoring through a basket (korf) ring mounted to netball-like goal posts positioned inside the field -- 2,5m or a third of the distance -- from the base line. The sport is particularly unique from other team sports in that it is a mixed-gender game as a team consists of four men and four women occupying either the defence or attack zone in their own half.

If two goals are scored, the players change zones with those who were attacking moving back to defend. Players in defence cannot cross the halfway line while those in attack can score from any position in the field. The basic rules of the sport are that players throw the ball to each other, there is no dribbling and a man can only mark a man while a woman can only mark another woman. Defending an attacker of the opposite sex or using legs gives away a penalty.

President of the Zimbabwe Korfball Federation, Tarirayi Chadebha, believes the sport is here to take root because of its gender-balanced team form. "Korfball is the only team sport played by both men and women competitively in the same side although a man does not mark a woman and vice-versa," he said. South Africa started playing the sport in 1993 and have been getting automatic qualification to the World Cups before Zimbabwe introduced the sport in February 2005 and Malawi in 2006.

Ghana and Lesotho started playing this year. "The game on Saturday will be the first for our Under-23s and a first competitive international on African soil at that level. "But at seniors level, Zimbabwe have played South Africa in Pretoria in September last year and we lost 33-6.

"If we win the Under-23 game then we qualify for the Under-23 World Cup in October," he said. Chadebha led the formation of korfball in Zimbabwe after having played handball for sometime. A Level One coaching course being conducted by IKF instructors Felix Meeus and Daniel De Rudder of Belgium ends in Masvingo today with participants being drawn from Malawi and Zimbabwe "It is some of these participants from Malawi who will form a select team to play the curtain raisers. "We are grateful to the International Korfball Federation and the Sports Commission who have helped us in establishing the virtually unknown.

"There are now structures in Mavingo and Manicaland provinces and efforts are being made to move into Harare and Bulawayo," he said.