Zambia beat Tanzania 55-37 in their first game at an African 5-nation netball tournament in Botswana, as they set to show why they deserved a place at the 2015 World Netball Cup to be held in Australia.
Twiga Stars also lost 39-47 to hosts Botswana in their second match of the series played at the Gaborone netball courts. It was a befitting consolation for Botswana who launched their campaign disastrously, losing 44-42 to Swaziland in the opening game on Sunday.
However, Swaziland failed to repeat their heroics as they fell 35-49 to more experienced Zimbabwe. The three top African teams Malawi, South Africa and Uganda have not showed up for the tournament.
Malawi, who are ranked first in Africa and Uganda pulled out due to financial reasons, while South Africa have not explained their absence.
The tournament was initially meant to be the African Netball Championship and had been scheduled for Namibia. However, Namibia pulled out just a week before the scheduled start and Botswana stepped in to rescue it.
Tanzania and Zambia were expected to dominate the tournament. Taifa Queens are the top ranked team participating, but have not played international netball for over two years.