The Sunday Mail
Veronica Gwaze
FOR Adelaide Muskwe, the inspiration to represent Zimbabwe in a sporting team came from somewhat unorthodox means.
“I was sitting on the terraces, watching my twin brother doing what he knows and loves most. I felt an urge to one day do it for my nation too,” says Adelaide.
The England-based player has been called to the national netball team, the Gems.
Adelaide is twin sister to Warriors and Leicester City forward Admiral Muskwe.
She is now set to feature at the netball World Cup finals in Liverpool, England, from July 12 – 21.
Adelaide marked her debut for Zimbabwe in an international friendly against the She Cranes in Uganda last week and has travelled to South Africa with the Gems this weekend.
Her twin, Admiral, is also looking forward to featuring for the Warriors after being named in the provisional Africa Cup of Nations and COSAFA squad.
Since Admiral marked his Warriors debut in a friendly match against Lesotho in 2017, Adelaide always felt she also had to do it for Zimbabwe one day.
“Whenever I sat in the stadium to watch him play, mostly in national team colours, something kept beckoning that one day I needed to do the same for Zimbabwe. The feeling gave me an unimaginable desire to put my all into netball.”
Adelaide was born at Parirenyatwa Hospital but her parents moved to Leicester when she was three years old.
The twins’ young brother, Adrian (8) “is also gifted in soccer and recently signed with Leicester City Under-12”.
Adelaide believes that the sporting talent is inborn in their family.
“I used to play tennis until I got to Secondary School at St Paul’s Catholic School where a certain teacher approached me requesting that I try out netball because of my height.
“Although without much idea on the sport, the coach felt pleased at my first appearance and expressed eagerness to fine-tune me.
“Somehow, without taking time, I decided that I would go along with both netball and tennis but later I preferred netball more,” said Muskwe.
With high hopes that she will feature on the World Cup bound squad, Muskwe reckons her parents will be faced with a task of having to do proper planning that will give them the opportunity to watch the twins play at their different tournaments.
“I do not know how they will do it, but they need to plan because we both need them at our tournaments,” she chuckled.
The Sports Science and Art graduate who turns out for one of UK’s top level club Seven Stars as a Goal Defender also captained Nottingham Knights before moving to Loughborough Lighting Netball Club.
Her twin brother is her biggest fan as he has never misses her matches whenever his club is not in action.
“We are lucky our parents are very supportive of sport.
“My twin brother is my number one fan. He is always there to watch me play whenever he is not playing.
“At home, we usually talk sport and this Gems call up is something that did not take me a minute to think about because it came when I was really looking forward to it,” she said.
Having settled in well in the Gems camp, Muskwe said she has learnt a lot from her national teammates.
“I honestly did not think my home team is that composite, not that I looked down on them but the talent I saw when I got here is just on another level.
“The Gems have their way of doing things, different from how we do it in the UK.
“The team is so committed, they do things as a team and when they step on court, it is not about personal glory for them. That is something I want to take home,” she said.
Muskwe believes playing for UK’s Vitality Netball Super league, which is United Kingdom’s elite netball competition, will act as an advantage to the Gems.
Having been part of the top level netball competition in UK, the Goal Defender has had encounters with some of the world’s renowned players.
She reckons those experiences will assist the Gems.
