Netball president welcomes World Cup spot – but 'more work to be done'

PRESIDENT of the TT Netball Association (TTNA) Sherry Ann Blackburn said the association must now ramp up preparations by bringing in experienced minds to help this country get ready for the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.

TT booked a place at the World Cup with a 43-27 win over USA at the Americas Netball World Cup Qualifiers at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday night.

The victory was TT’s sixth straight in the qualifiers.

Before the match against USA, TT defeated Cayman Islands, Grenada, St Vincent/Grenadines, St Lucia and Antigua/Barbuda.

“This is really a great thing for TT netball,” Blackburn said. “We would have put in the work to get to this place. It is not over yet. Although we have qualified there is more work to be done and it is important for the sport to keep netball on the map at the highest level.”

TT finished ninth at the last Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England, in 2019.

Blackburn said the TTNA will put steps in place to help the team prepare for the World Cup.

“We going back to the drawing table and we are going to put our minds together again and we are going to bring some experienced minds in the board room and engage in a strategy towards the World Cup. We really want to reclaim the sport and we really want to experience victory again like we did in 1979, so we are going to strategise to obtain victory.”

At the 1979 World Cup Championships in Port of Spain, TT were joint winners with Australia and New Zealand. It is TT’s only netball title.

TT are without star player Samantha Wallace at the qualifiers in Jamaica because of injury.

Blackburn, who is hoping all players will be healthy when the World Cup begins, said other players got the opportunity to feature at the qualifiers in Jamaica.

“We are very optimistic that players won’t be injured out and that we will do what it takes to help them to recover. However, with a team sport these (injuries) are some of the challenges that sometimes are inevitable and if we do not have the persons that we are familiar with…we have to grow new persons in those spaces and events like this will help us to do that.”

Goal attack Joelisa Cooper led the way for TT against USA, converting 20 of 24 attempts, and goal-shoot Afeisha Noel scored 15 of 16.

TT jumped out to an 18-8 advantage at the end of the first quarter and at half-time led 27-13. In the second half TT continued to control the contest and had a 38-19 lead at the end of the third quarter. USA outscored TT 8-5 in the final quarter, but the Americans could not overcome the deficit.

TT were aiming for a seventh consecutive win against Barbados in Jamaica after press time on Thursday.