National senior netballers to stay home

The wait for St Vincent and the Grenadines senior netballers to be active again in competition has been extended. This, after a planned tour to St Maarten this weekend to be involved in the Atlantic Cup will now not come off.{{more}}

The St Maarten outing would have ended the six-year drought of competitive matches for the senior players and would have served as an opportunity for St Vincent and the Grenadines to gain ranking points, as the tournament was approved by the Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA).

Players got the disappointing news last Monday afternoon, when they showed up for practice at the Kingstown Netball Centre. Second vice-president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Netball Association (SVGNA) Sylvorn Harry told SEARCHLIGHT at the venue on Monday, that her organization knew of the cancellation earlier that day.

Harry said that the organizers in St Maarten informed that the other teams had pulled out of the tournament, hence the cancellation.

“We had everything in place; our passages were paid… The players were eagerly looking forward to the tournament,” Harry added.

Harry said that they had the option of going to St Maarten to play some exhibition matches, but turned that down, as their mission was to go and get the rankings points.

St Vincent and the Grenadines has neither a ranking nor a rating on the International Netball Federation (INF) set-up.

The team, which was set to leave here Friday, included Vasha Adams – captain, Skiddy Francis Crick – vice-captain, Bownie Allicott, Maxine James, Nerissa Delpesche, Kailene Thompson, Mary Ann Fredrick, Shannique Deshong, Zipporah Millington and Rose Claire Hall.

Nicole Sandy-Stevenson was named the team’s coach, with Thelma Foster – manager and Diane Questelles, public relations officer of the SVGNA, also making the trip.(RT)