Plummer ready for Netball World Cup debut
Published:Tuesday | July 25, 2023 | 12:06 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
Describing her selection to her first Netball World Cup as overwhelming, Crystal Plummer, while acknowledging the magnitude of the moment, is ready to make her mark in her first major global championship appearance.
Jamaica will open their Netball World Cup campaign against Sri Lanka at 11 a.m. on Friday in South Africa as they hope to earn their first podium place since 2007. For Plummer, her inclusion in the squad not only represents the rapid improvement she has made since her Netball Americas Qualifiers last November but the hard work put in during the final weeks before the team selection. And while she has been rewarded for her efforts, Plummer said that the announcement still came as a shock to her.
“It was (a surprise). But I still have to be grateful that I will be representing my country at my first World Cup and I am looking forward to doing great things,” Plummer told The Gleaner. “Honestly, I was overwhelmed but I know that the hard work that I put in gave me that position to be on that team.”
Since that Netball Americas Qualifying experience, she has not only been on the New Zealand tour last year but the England tour earlier this year.
For her, it was the final phase of training before the roster announcements which for her was the most intense to ensure that she proved that she can rise to the occasion when counted on.
“The hard part of it was like when it was down for selection time weeks ago. Because that’s when the work gets intense, you have to be putting out 150 per cent. You have to step it up each time we go to training to make them know that you are ready,” Plummer said.
For 10-year veteran Shanice Beckford, she is excited for Plummer to unveil her talent on this platform.
“The good thing about Crystal is she is a very smart and good player. She can take corrections when she makes a mistake. So we try our best as senior players to try and show her the experience, what it is like. We can’t wait to see what she will come with. She is young and she is fit and she is just ready to go,” Beckford said.
While she knows the nerves will be there when she takes the court for the first time at a World Cup, she is relishing the opportunity to make her mark in her young career, something that will mean a lot of her and those she relies on the most when the competition starts. “I would probably get nervous because it is going to be my first big competition like that on the international stage in front of millions of people,” Plummer said. “Everybody is striving for one position on the team. To be a part of it means a lot. Even to my family, it means a lot.”