The top three netball nations in the Caribbean are exploring the possibility of establishing a semi-professional league.This was revealed by Octavia Gibson, president of the Barbados Netball Association (BNA), during a recent interview with MIDWEEK SPORT. Gibson said preliminary discussions were held among Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago during the Americas Federation of Netball Association (AFNA) Championships last month in St Lucia.Most of the logistics are still to be worked out, with the major factor being financing. There is a pro league in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ Championship) where Jamaican players like Romelda Aiken, Carla Williams-Borrego, and Althea Byfield have been plying their trade.“We would like to have games in all three countries, with the winner going to England or England coming over here. Teams would be able to use top players from St Lucia or St Vincent [for example] because it wouldn’t be a national team,” Gibson explained.Countries with larger pools of players to chose from would have more than one team.The president also announced that the senior national team was back in training towards the October 3 to 14 Commonwealth Games in India. Barbados finished second at the AFNA Championships, but will have a much tougher draw with matches against No. 2 New Zealand, No. 3 England, No. 6 South Africa, No. 10 Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea who are ranked 13th in the world. “The management got together with the coach and the Coaching Advisory Committee and looked at areas they have to work on. Different tasks have been assigned to different members of the management team and every person is working on their area for the good of the team,” Gibson said.She added that coming out of the AFNA Championships, all of the teams had improved since the previous tournament was held two years ago. In the case of Barbados, work needed to be done in the midcourt, but she also saw an overall improvement in the fitness.“Normally, in the third or fourth quarter we start to sag, but that didn’t happen this time around. If you look at the scores, we came from behind, so those third and fourth quarters were critical. I don’t like coming from behind. I think we need to play the advantage and go forward.” Members of the senior team have also started their fund-raising drive, Road To Singapore, which is designed to offset costs of about $72 000 to attend the 2011 World Netball Championships in Singapore.Meanwhile, the feeder programmes for the senior team have not been neglected. Sonya Knight has been appointed coach of the Under-21 team, and the Under-16s are back in training.
