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Netball Jamaica gets $15-m boost ahead of World Cup

Published:Thursday | March 9, 2023 | 12:51 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
President of Netball Jamaica, Tricia Robinson (third left), Sunshine Girl Shanice Beckford (left), and coach Connie Francis (right) pose with a symbolic cheque of $15 million from Seprod along with (from left) the organisation’s head of supply chain, Mar
Ian Allen
President of Netball Jamaica, Tricia Robinson (third left), Sunshine Girl Shanice Beckford (left), and coach Connie Francis (right) pose with a symbolic cheque of $15 million from Seprod along with (from left) the organisation’s head of supply chain, Marilyn Golding-Anderson, and chief financial officer, Damion Dodd. Also enjoying the moment is Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange. The contract signing and handover ceremony took place at the National Indoor Sports Centre yesterday.

WITH THE 2023 Netball World Cup set for Cape Town, South Africa 141 days away, world number-four-ranked Jamaica received a massive financial boost geared towards preparation for their African trip.

Yesterday at the National Indoor Sports Centre, regional manufacturer and distributing company, Seprod, donated $15.1 million to Netball Jamaica.

Sherida Cohen, business development manager at Serge Dairies, believes the initiative will go a far way in helping the national team.

“For Seprod, it was an easy decision. You have Jamaica’s strongest team, which is the netball team, with Jamaica’s strongest company in manufacturing and distribution, so it was just a natural alignment. It will be an added boost, this is a delightful boost, because we want them to come back from South Africa with that trophy,” said Cohen.

Moved by Seprod’s donation, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange said the Government would be showing their support for the Sunshine Girls with a $10-million donation of its own.

“We as Government are providing an additional $10 million as well as ensuring that they’re all covered under the Jamaica Athlete Insurance Plan. At this time, public and private sectors are working together to make sure that our Sunshine Girls are well equipped and well prepared. All the things that are needed are in place, we want them to come back with the cup. It will be significant that our little country of less than three million people will play and could possible come back with the cup from South Africa. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing to have happen?” said Grange.

Head coach of the national team, Connie Francis, said the team should be buoyed from their performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, and that she hopes it would have opened her team’s eyes to believing the sky is the limit.

The Sunshine Girls grabbed a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, their highest finish at the games that include all the teams in the top four of world netball.

“I think that we have a chance, based on our last performance (Commonwealth Games). The Sunshine Girls are now realising that the sky is the limit for them and they can achieve. The Girls overseas are in competition and are playing against the best in the world and that will certainly help us,” said Francis.

Francis added that with the talent Jamaica has at their disposal, finishing in the top three is almost a surety.

“We will medal, what we have in our squad and the hunger that we have, if we play our cards right we can go all the way,” Francis believes.

Jamaica, who have been to every Netball World Cup since its inception in 1963, have finished third on three occasions in 1991, 1993 and 2007.

orane.buchanan@gleanerjm.com