Although the regional tournament is open to foreign based players, Pagels says he is not going to field any of them despite the fact that they will be in the country on the off-season break when the contest takes centre stage from 6-21 July.
The internationally recognised international football calendar runs from August to May and, in-between, most players will be back in their countries to reunite with family and friends.
Pagels said there is a lot of talent in the Castle Lager Premiership, adding that he will use the local players for both the Cosafa Castle Cup and the African Nations Championship in which Zimbabwe has been drawn to play Mauritius.
It will then face the winner of the game between Zambia and Botswana should they prevail over the islanders.
The German mentor revealed that he would from now on consider more local players in his national team selections, adding that he is using the next friendly match against Malawi to identify more locally based talent for the World Cup qualifier against Egypt set for June.
Pagels pointed out that in the game against Zambia which Zimbabwe lost 2-0, he identified three more local based players whom he will draft into his World Cup team but did not reveal their names.
Although Zimbabwe appears out of a place at the 2014 World Cup finals, Pagels knows the importance of winning next month’s match against Egypt for the sake of his reputation and that of the Warriors.
The Warriors currently anchor the four team table with one point from three games while Egypt top the table with six points from the same number of games. Guinea are second with four points while Mozambique are third with two points.
Post published in: Football