Sunshine Girls to face NZ with just seven players
Published:Tuesday | September 20, 2022 | 12:09 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
The Sunshine Girls coaching staff will only have seven players to choose from when they take on hosts New Zealand (NZ) for the Taini Jamison trophy in the opening ‘Test’ match tomorrow.
Five members of the squad could not make the trip to New Zealand as they were unable to obtain US visas.
The three-game series, which was scheduled to commence last Saturday, was postponed because of the visa issue. The three-game series has now been reduced to two matches and president of Netball Jamaica, Tricia Robinson, insists that it is important they honour the fixtures despite their setback.
“We already have seven players there, plus the coach, manager and the physiotherapist. We had flight challenges with the remainder and we had tried to re-route them to get to New Zealand because they didn’t have US visas and that is the big snag that we have,” she pointed out.
Without US visas the five players would not be able to get a flight to reach New Zealand in time for the first ‘Test’.
A number of Jamaica’s players, including regular captain Jhaniele Fowler and top defender Shamera Sterling, ply their trade in Australia but they are unavailable and Robinson noted that it was highly unlikely that any of those players will be joining the squad to fill the void.
With a team comprising seven players, the Sunshine Girls might find themselves playing short if one, two or more players go down injured in one of the games.
Nevertheless, Robinson said everyone in the camp has accepted the situation and are ready to play.
“It is very important for us to honour the fixture. The team on the ground there is on board with that, as well as the coaches. So we will honour our obligations and make the best of it,” she added.
Jamaica recently defeated New Zealand in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games, and were seeking to upstage the world number two ranked team for a second time.