Government says it is working hard to find development partners for funding the construction of a modern indoor netball court in the country.

Deputy principal secretary in the Ministry of Sports, Diana Nkhulembe, made the remarks on Friday at a ceremony where Mpico Plc announced an increase in sponsorship of Mpico Gateway Mall Netball tournament for the Central Region from K35 million to K40 million.

The much-awaited construction of an indoor netball facility got an allocation of K250 million from government during the 2011 financial year, but nothing has happened this far.

Malawi Queens have failed to host top overseas national teams such as England and Jamaica due to lack of an international standard netball court.

Despite the Queens’ successes eversince, Malawi still use open and tattered netball courts that leave players and spectators baked under the scorching sun and drenched during rains.

According to the current International Netball Federation (INF) World Rankings, Malawi Queens are ranked third in Africa and ninth in the world.

But in her remarks, Nkhulembe assured the netball fraternity that government is in talks with various international development partners for funding of the indoor netball court in the country.

“The new Minister of Sports, Francis Phiso, had an audience with the Chinese Ambassador. He appealed through him to the Chinese government to consider funding the construction of the mordern indoor netball court,” she said.

Nkhulembe added that the sports minister also had meetings with the management team in the Ministry of Sports as well as the Treasury Department on how much government can afford while waiting for support from the development partners.