The Sunday News
Fungai Muderere, Senior Sports Reporter
CHICKEN Inn players willing to gamble on their careers by sitting on their laurels in the build-up to the upcoming season might find themselves on the sidelines with revelations coach Joey Antipas will not hesitate to sign Malawian players.
The Gamecocks, who enjoy sound sponsorship from Simbisa Brands, Black Shark, Bonvie Medical Aid Scheme and Zibuko Capital, are set to leave the country for Malawi via Zambia on Tuesday for a four team invitational tournament that will start on 1 March.
The Moses Jackson-captained side will use the invitational tournament as part of their pre-season preparations, and they will combine that trip with their pre-season camp.
Malawi champions Nyasa Big Bullets, Nyasa Big Bullets, who won the league title last year with Zimbabwean coach Kalisto Pasuwa, recently wrote to Zimbabwe’s 2015 champions saying the Malawi FA had accepted their proposal to host Antipas’ charges and two other clubs, Clube.
Ferroviário de Nampula from Mozambique and the other Be Forward Wanderers from Malawi.
“We are greatly looking forward to the invitational tournament where we are going to play three games.
We hope all our players will have a good run. We are going to try out different combinations and we will not hesitate to sign one or two quality players from Malawi who will add value to our team,” said Antipas.
Chicken Inn spokesperson Tawengwa Hara recently told our sister paper B-Metro that they are in search of a “lethal striker” that will add fire power in the team that has shown some serious title intentions by raiding Dynamos, Ngezi Platinum and FC Platinum in the process getting quality arsenal.
They recently signed Dynamos’ attacking midfielder-cum winger Valentine Kadonzvo as well as Panashe Mutasa, son to ex-DeMbare coach and player Lloyd Mutasa.
Former Glamour Boys and Hwange defender Phakamani Dube now belongs to the Chicken Inn camp which also signed Sipho Ndlovu from Bulawayo City, Clive Augusto from Ngezi Platinum Stars, and Harare City’s Malvin Gaki.
A fortnight ago Gamecocks continued on a rich vein of form in the transfer market with their latest new signings being the duo of former senior national team goalkeeper Donovan Bernard and midfielder Tichaona Chipunza who come in from Ngezi Platinum Stars.
Last year, Chicken Inn played Zanaco and Nkana Red Devils of Zambia at Luveve Stadium in Bulawayo in February as part of their pre-season preparations.
Meanwhile, Chicken Inn and Highlanders will battle it out in the revised 2019 ZNA Charity Shield Cup, which has seen organisers changing the competition’s format from a four-team competition to a two-team event.
Organisers of the tournament have set March 10 as the provisional date for the clash between the two sides, which met in last year’s semi-finals, which Bosso won 2-1. The army is targeting to raise $20 000 from the Highlanders and Chicken Inn clash. Proceeds from the tournament will be channelled towards the five ZNA charities, the Tsanga Lodge Convalescent Centre in Nyanga for the rehabilitation of injured soldiers, the Benevolence Fund for the welfare of troops on internal, external and international operations, ZNA Schools Welfare Trust, which has a total of 12 primary and five secondary schools, as well as the Widows and Orphans’ Fund that takes care of widows of soldiers before they receive terminal benefits.
