Netball Jamaica sets Elite League target
Published:Sunday | May 23, 2021 | 12:19 AMRobert Bailey - Sunday Gleaner Writer
President of Netball Jamaica (NJ), Tricia Robinson, says that with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to curtail the island’s netball programme, the association is working hard to put everything in place for the resumption of the National Elite League, with a start date in July being targeted.
The Elite League, which consists of six teams, is the island’s top netball competition, attracting some of the country’s best netball players. The championships was scheduled to start in early 2020, but had to be postponed because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robinson told The Sunday Gleaner that her organisation is currently ironing out certain details around the championships, such as the fixtures and that they are also seeking sponsors and partners for the competition.
“South Africa will tour in October and so we would really like to start in July. We are working towards having the league in that time period,” said Robinson.
“This competition is very important for our young ladies because they haven’t played any netball competitions in over a year and so we are working very hard to have this league restart,” she added.
“The last time we had the competition it ran about $10 million, but this time around we are looking at tailoring it to fit into a shorter time period and so it should not cost as much as that. Perhaps it would cost around $8 million,” Robinson said.
Protocols approved
She noted that the Sunshine Girls recently had their protocols approved by the Government for them to return to training and this has left her confident that protocols which they have submitted to the Government for the restart of the league will be approved for the safe return of the local competitions.
“We have achieved this by getting the national players out with the approvals of our protocols and so we are working on doing the same for our elite players,” Robinson said.
“This is our top netball league locally and the players are recruited from there to the national programme and once the start date is confirmed, then the players will have to be tested before they enter the competition,” she added.
Meanwhile, veteran coach and top local umpire Christopher Campbell is delighted that NJ has now set out a plan for the restart of the sport, pointing out that a lot of players are now desperate to get back on court.
“This will be excellent for netball because we need to get out there and start playing netball again,” said Campbell.
“We have not played any netball in almost two years and since the Jamaica Premier League is going to be playing, then netball can start play because football is a contact sport and they got the go-ahead and so I think netball should be able to start with the proper protocols in place,” Campbell said.
“Remember that all the other countries in the world are playing and we are the only team in the top five in the world that is not playing any netball at the moment and so the restart of the Elite League will be massive for us,” Campbell said.