NZ campus team to test SL senior team

The Sri Lanka Netball Federation (SLNF) in conjunction with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has managed to bring down a university netball team from New Zealand to further fine tune the preparations of the national team ahead of the upcoming 15th Asian Senior Netball Championship.

This was confirmed to The Daily Morning Sports, by the SLNF President Vajira Netticumara. The said event is due to take place in Hong Kong this August and it carries added significance to all participants this year with the top two nations (winners and runners-up) set to book their places from Asia for next year’s Netball World Cup in Australia.

Netticumara stated that the campus team from New Zealand consisting of talented netballers will arrive in Colombo on 5 July and expressed confidence that the training matches against the touring team could benefit the senior national team who had been starved of top-class competition for some time.

“We managed to get hold of this University team from New Zealand to further streamline the national team’s preparations,” the NFSL head said.

“Already most other teams like Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong are far advanced in their training, So, we need a lot of catching up to do. However, we are optimistic that our girls will use these games to further hone their craft and then hit the ground running when the Championship kicks off.”

Meanwhile, Netticumara also added that ex-Jamaican netball star cum coach Connie Francis will arrive in the country on 1 July to operate till the conclusion of the 14th Asian Senior Netball Championship in the capacity of a ‘Consultant Coach.’

Francis, is a netball coach and a former captain and considered one of Jamaica’s most successful coaches while representing her country for 17 years before retiring in 2003.

She was also instrumental in guiding Jamaica to bronze success at the 2007 Netball World Cup in New Zealand while steering her country to similar success at the 2003 edition in South Africa in the process ending a 16-year medal drought for the Caribbean nation.

Sri Lanka’s senior netball team under the guidance of ex-national captain Somitha de Alwis is currently hard at training at the Indoor Stadium in Bandaragama.

Singapore will commence the 12-team Asian Senior Netball Championship as defending champions with the rest of the competing nations being Sri Lanka (five-time winners, runners-up in 2024), Malaysia (two-time winners), Hong Kong (hosts), Thailand, Chinese Taipei, India, Maldives, Brunei, Philippines, Japan and Pakistan.

In the meantime, the Inter-Association Netball Championship organised by the Sri Lanka Netball Federation (SLNF) is due to be played at Torrington, Colombo from 23-25 May.

Source - The Morning