‘It’s about time!’

THEY HUNG up their gear almost half a century ago, but members of the 1960s and ‘70s national netball team still remain optimistic about the fortunes of the Sunshine Girls and are hoping the 2023 World Cup in Cape Town will crown them in glory.

Former President of the Jamaica Netball Association, Vilma McDonald, who also played for Jamaica from 1967 to 1975 said after Jamaica defeated New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games, her hopes of Jamaica winning a World Cup have risen.

“I think that this crop now, having seen them in the Commonwealth Games, I think that this team has an excellent chance of being number one. It just depends on the day that we are playing, but from what I am seeing, these ladies are quite hungry for it; and I believe, if they continue the way they are now, they can achieve number one,” McDonald, the 1971 captain, said.

Avis Graham-Collins, who started playing for Jamaica in 1963 and was captain in 1967, said she believed the Sunshine Girl’s steady progress will help them to claim the island’s first World Cup.

“They have been progressing steadily for the number of years that they’ve been playing. There’s a lot of dedication, and I think it’s about time that Jamaica beat Australia or New Zealand. They came the closest at the Commonwealth, so I am rooting for them for the next one,” said Graham-Collins, who played wing attack or wing defence.

WORLD TOURNAMENT

Joy Charles, who played centre from 1959 to 1979, said although her team failed in their bid to win a World Tournament, she thinks Jamaica’s current team has a chance to come out on top.

“I have played netball for 20 years, so I have been to all the consecutive World tournaments. I retired in 1979 when the tournament was held in Trinidad,” Charles said.

“If the girls are committed and dedicated to training,” she said in response to The Sunshine’s Girls chances in 2023.

“A team like Australia that has the resources and the training that the girls get there, compared to what we get here, it is a struggle to get to that stage, because you would have to have the proper resources to fund the netball camps and tournaments to get to that stage.”

However, Charles noted how netball in Jamaica has grown, compared to her days of playing.

“We started out with most of the Corporate Area schools, and there was not much netball being played in the rural schools, and it used to be an all-girl sport. We have tournaments all over the island, and that is how the game has really grown,” Charles said.

“The game has changed somehow. We have the same rules basically, but there have been slight changes to some of the rules of netball, and it has become more of a contact sport now, I find. In the days when I used to play, it was more elegant …[but] I have learned to appreciate the game as it is now.”

McDonald also highlighted a few changes which, she said, she believes are factors that will help Jamaica to climb to the top of the world rankings.

“I think that these ladies who are playing today are in a better position than when we played, because when we played netball, we had to work then come to training. And when we were finished training, we would get our transport and go home. Today, these ladies are looked after in terms of moving …when they come to training they have a manager who sees to their welfare; we didn’t have that at all,” McDonald said.

They said with commitment from the players and increased support from all Jamaicans, the island should continue to increase their impact on world netball.

“We have to remember that finance plays a big part in this, in terms of getting people trained and all kind of stuff,” Graham-Collins said.