New sport in Malawi called Gendaball
There is a new sport in town called “Gendaball”. According to the inventor, Francis Mwalabu, a Malawian working at the Malawi Embassy Office in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, the sport was designed to provide entertainment to all outdoor sports lovers and to improve the well-being of humanity, through the numerous health and social-economic benefits.
He says Gendaball was also created as a commercial project for creating value and wealth, through the many industries that will be born out of the game.
Concept behind Gendaball
Mwalabu says the outdoor game of Gendaball has been created out of the realization that the world of sport needs a new game that would have the same global appeal as the current traditional games and even surpass some of them in terms of benefits to mankind.
“The game of Gendaball offers the sporting world a whole new dimension of entertainment, passion and competition. Gendaball’s uniqueness as a sporting adventure is that it is a game that cuts across all barriers, allowing people of all ages, sexes, social status, cultures and critically allowing people with disabilities to enjoy a unique sporting experience as families, students, workers, tourists, professional sportsmen and women.
“Gendaball also offers people involved in field operations like peace-keeping missions an alternative pastime sporting adventure. It is a game requiring less physicality yet demanding more skill and rationality. It is a game which is fiercely competitive yet gentle and smart and very safe to play even for little children and the elderly,” He said.
How it is played
According to Mwalabu, gendaball is played using a soft ball, slightly bigger than the size of a cricket ball, which is thrown directly onto a target board comprising 16 holes of varying sizes and values. He says the ball is thrown from the playing court comprising 10 throw stations.
“Gendaball is a game of target-shooting using one hand to propel the ball towards the holes on the Targetboard. The level of ease or difficult of playing Gendaball is a factor of both the sizes of the holes and the distances from which the ball is thrown. The bigger the hole, the easier it is for the ball to enter through, but the less the points one gets. Inversely, the smaller the hole, the more difficult it is for the ball to enter through, but the higher the points one gets.
“Also the shorter the throwing distance between the throw station and the target board, the easier it is to hit the target hole and the longer the distance, the more difficult it is to hit the target hole. Scores are calculated mathematically, by multiplying the value of the hole by the value of the distance level from where the shot has been taken.
“The scores are recorded either manually or generated electronically and displayed on an electronic scoreboard. The individual player or team which scores the highest points at the end of the game, is declared the winner,” said Mwalabu.
What next
According to Mwalabu, the new sport will officially be unveiled in Malawi and an official launch is planned for September, 2017. He says an international launch is planned for next year and the venue will be Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the inventor’s dream to see Gendaball being played one day at the Olympic games.
“My dream is to see the game of Gendaball, being played in every corner of the globe, from kindergartens to pre-schools; from primary schools to high schools to colleges. I also dream to see young people excelling in this game and taking it as a fulltime profession. I see this game being competed for at local, national and international levels by national teams and top professional clubs.
“I see smiling athletes standing on local, national and international podiums to receive gold, silver and bronze medals. I see a newly-crowned Gendaball Olympic Gold Medalist in tears of joy, kissing her/his medal in front of thousands of spectators and being viewed by a global TV audience of over a billion people,” Mwalabu said.
Meanwhile, Mwalabu says in order to kick-start the process of promoting the game of Gendaball, he has authored a 30-page handbook of information and rules which is targeting government of Malawi, through the ministry of sports, which may take a special interest to embrace the game and take pride in associating itself with an invention coming from its own national program.
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It semms its a good game ……. sounds like Golf but precisely Netball will try it oneday. Would suggest if it can be given another name not (Gendaball) is it delived from our venacular proverb KUGENDA (throwing)???? Nevertheless keep it up.