Sri Lanka in Group ‘A’ for World Youth Netball Championship
The World Youth Netball Championships is scheduled to be held in Botswana from July 8 to 16. Sri Lanka has qualified for the eight day contest from Group A.
Twenty teams from Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Oceania have qualified for the tournament. The competition is being conducted by the International Netball Federation (INF).
This is the first time that Sri Lanka has qualified from the Asian Region. They qualified for the event when they emerged champions at the Asian Youth Netball Championships held in Hong Kong in the year 2015. Sri Lanka toppled Malaysia 53-48 to emerge champions.
The first three teams at the competition qualified for the World Youth Netball Championships to be held in Botswana. The teams are: Champions – Sri Lanka, Runners-up – Malaysia and third place winners – Singapore.
The International Netball Federation has classified the teams for the contest. They are: Group A – New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Samoa. Group B – Australia, South Africa, Barbados, Zimbabwe and Singapore. Group C – Jamaica, Botswana, Cook Islands, Malaysia and Uganda. Group D – England, Fiji, Trinidad & Tobago, Wales and Ghana.
The Sri Lanka Netball Federation called for under 21 selection trials at Torrington Square Indoor Stadium yesterday and today. Prior to the Botswana event there is an Asian Youth Netball Championship in South Korea from May 7 to 16, these trials are being held for both these competitions. From these trials plans are afoot to pick 30 players and drop the players in the pool to 18 in due course.
The Sports Ministry has announced the new selection committee where Priyanka Pieris, a former national captain as the chairman. The other members of the selection committee are: Soma Illangakone, Deepthi Rupasinghe, Arunika Karawita and Rohini Perera. Their first tasks will be to pick teams for the World Youth and Asian Youth championships.
However, a coach has not been selected to date. Applications have been called for a youth coach and four coaches have come forward and the coach was expected to be interviewed on January 5, but the Interview Broad and the selection criteria has not been named by the Sports Ministry, as such the selection was not made.