Mwai Kumwenda

Malawian goal shooter who starred at multiple Commonwealth Games and World Cups, topped scoring charts at major tournaments, and won the 2020 Super Netball title with Melbourne Vixens.

Mwai Kumwenda was born on 27 September 1989 in Mtwalo village, Mzimba District, Malawi, the youngest of eight children in a farming family; her father died when she was young. She learned the game on dirt courts using a ball fashioned from plastic bags and a hoop made from part of a car tyre, and was spotted by Malawi's national coach at 14 before moving to Blantyre at 15 to pursue netball seriously, coming through the ranks with Escom Sisters (later Kukoma Diamonds). Kumwenda made her senior Malawi debut in 2008 and went on to represent the Malawi Queens at three Commonwealth Games (2010, 2014, 2018) and two Netball World Cups (2011, 2015), finishing as top goal scorer at three consecutive major tournaments — the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 World Cup, where she was also named Player of the Tournament. Her defining international moment came at Gold Coast 2018, scoring 41 goals as Malawi beat New Zealand 57–53. In 2014 she became the first African netballer to sign with a Trans-Tasman league team, joining New Zealand's Mainland Tactix, before Melbourne Vixens recruited her for the inaugural 2017 Suncorp Super Netball season; she won the title and Grand Final MVP with the Vixens in 2020. Kumwenda has used her netball earnings to support her family back in Malawi, and in 2025 — after taking a season off following the birth of her first child — she returned to elite netball with West Coast Fever.

• 2015 Netball World Cup Player of the Tournament
• 2016 Fast5 World Series bronze
• 2020 Suncorp Super Netball premiership and Grand Final MVP
• 2014 ANZ Championship Best New Talent