International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) president Molly Rhone has said netball is a sleeping giant waiting to be awakened by vibrant netball associations.

The UK-based Rhone, who is in Malawi as part of an IFNA plan to reconnect with Africa, was speaking Monday when she addressed representatives of the Confederation of Southern African Netball Associations (COSANA) gathered in Blantyre ahead of the tournament which starts Wednesday, Nation Online of Malawi reported Tuesday.

"We are concerned with the diminishing numbers in Africa. We know that there are at least 14 countries that play netball but currently, only five are active. We believe that there is immense talent in Africa as we saw at the Commonwealth Games in Australia where Malawi displayed a lot of talent and was a darling.

"We are also here to see how best we can equip countries with international coaching and umpiring skills so that the game of netball develops," she said.

Rhone then challenged netball associations to vigorously push for sponsorship. "Sports is big business but we [in netball] have to make our voices heard by positioning ourselves as the voice on women's issues and also see how best to avoid running the game from our kitchen tables, offices or cars," she said.

Reacting to Rhone's challenge, COSANA president Refiloe Makoele admitted her association has major sponsorship problems and pointed out that countries like Lesotho and Swaziland have pulled out of the competition due to lack of funds as associations have to foot their own transport, food and accommodation.

"We've got to come up with projects to generate funds. [The IFNA president] has already inspired us by giving us a business prospect of selling netball merchandise which we can market to schools for our self sustenance," said Makoele.

This is the first time in its 46 years of existence that an IFNA's president is visiting Malawi.