Under 21 netball tournament to be staged on Jan 31 and Feb. 1
In preparation for the Asian Youth Netball Championship which is likely to be held in mid year the Sri Lanka Interim Netball Committee will be staging an Under 21 Netball Tournament scheduled to be held on January 31 and February 1 at the Indoor Netball Courts at Torrington Sports Complex.
A step in the right direction to pick them young and groom them to the national squads will do a lot of good not only for netball but to all any other sport disciplines. The interim committee headed by Ms. Lakshmi Victoria should be commended for organising this Under 21 tournament. By picking a promising and a talented lot will make the selectors’ job easy in picking the squad in preparation for the Asian Junior tournament which will be held in Hong Kong, Malaysia or Singapore.
A team from each of the 34 associations of the Netball Federation is expected to take part at this all important event. The main motive of staging this tournament is to get players in condition for the Asian Youth mega event. An open Junior National Pool of 60 players will be picked at the conclusion of the tournament and will undergo further training which is expected to start in mid February.
As Singapore and Malaysia are dominating the junior netball, it is high time that the Sri Lankan juniors too come out with a gritty performance to dethrone the Asian counterparts this year. Sri Lanka has never won an Asian Netball crown at Asian level and the only silver lining was in 2013 at Brunai when Sri Lanka went down fighting in the finals and had to be contended as the runners-up.
In keeping the next World Netball Championship in mind the interim committee had planned to stage an Invitation League tournament which is expected to be taken part by all the leading teams in both private and public sectors. This competition is to be staged at the new netball courts at the Torrington Sports Complex and is sure to open a window in identifying new players who are capable of finding a slot in the national squad.