THE Barbados Netball Association (BNA) is looking for corporate support to help host the Caribbean Netball Association’s Jean Pierre Under-16 Netball Tournament.
As preparations intensified for the March 31 to April 9 tournament at the Netball Stadium, BNA president Nisha Craigwell told the SATURDAY SUN they are where they had projected to be at this stage and all they needed now was for some sponsors to come on board.
“We have potential sponsors in place that we are hoping will sign off. That is the one area where the targeted amount of sponsorship we have not been able to fulfil so far, but we still have two more months to go so we are hoping that people will step up and assist us with this venture,” said Craigwell.
Barbados last hosted the tournament in 2010 and they are also the reigning champions.
Craigwell noted that it was the third time Barbados won the title and they wanted to defend it on home soil.
“This will be the first time Barbados will be actually defending at home, so this tournament is extra special for us, and in the year of our 50th anniversary as a country. Last year we celebrated our 40th anniversary as the Barbados Netball Association, so this tournament we strategically went after, because we won in our 40th year and we really want to defend in Barbados,” said Craigwell.
The same management team that oversaw last year’s victorious squad will be in place again this year and Craigwell said that she was pleased with how the training had gone so far.
“This programme has been very successful. If you look at the history, Barbados has been placing in the top three throughout the tournament. We have also won individual awards and we have the record for winning the shooting competition more than any country and we are the only country that would have participated in every edition of the Under-16 tournament. So we have a lot of experiences that we are building on,” said Craigwell.
The deadline for the expressions of interest was December 31 and eight countries met that deadline. Those are hosts Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Bermuda, Grenada and regional powerhouse Jamaica.
Interested countries have until January 31 to confirm their participation.     Â
• petragooding@nationnews.com
