The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
PREMIER League side Chicken Inn are set to take on Malawi premiership champions, Nyasa Big Bullets in a four team pre-season tournament.
Bullets invited the Gamecocks for the tourney that has been scheduled for the end of February.
According to the invitation letter, four teams are set to take part in the tourney with one club coming from Mozambique while the other is a local team from Malawi.
The tournament is meant to prepare the teams for the upcoming 2019 football season and matches will be played in a round robin format with all the teams playing against each other.
Chicken Inn secretary, Tavengwa Hara said they would be taking the chance to fine tune their preparations for the 2019 season.
He also revealed they are still looking at strengthening their squad and would be on the lookout for able players during the tourney.
“I believe we have been presented with a good chance to fine tune our preparations for the 2019 season and will be heading to Malawi with the hope of making the final assessment of the squad.
“We want a strong and competitive side that will challenge for honours and coming up against Bullets, who are the champions of Malawi will certainly give the coaches ample opportunity to ascertain the squad. While we are yet to ascertain the names of the other teams I believe they will be top teams also that would help us gauge our players.
“We won’t hesitate to snap up any Malawi players that we deem to be quality additions to the team,” said Hara.
The Gamecocks have for the past three years been engaging foreign teams in their season preparation having to travelled to Zambia in 2017 while the neighbouring country’s football giants, Zanaco made the trip to Zimbabwe last year.
The 2015 league champions have already sounded warning shots snapping up several players to fortify their squad.
The Joey Antipas coached side has already signed FC Platinum midfielder, Brett Amidu and Harare City striker, Malvin Gaki, Ngezi Platinum’s Clive Augusto, Panashe Mutasa and Sipho Ndlovu who was previously with Bulawayo City.
Antipas has already indicated they will be challenging for the championship after inconsistency saw them finish third behind FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum last year. An uninspiring performance in the first half saw the Bulawayo-based side lag behind the two teams and a strong finish could not aid their cause.
Speaking to our sister publication Chronicle, Antipas said he is looking at beefing up his side so as to effectively challenge for the title they needed new arsenal.
“Some of the players right now still got it, but I don’t think they will be good enough because we want to challenge for the championship and to do so you need to bring in players who will add value to the squad,” he was quoted as saying.
