THE nation’s finest will play in the semi-professional Netball Jamaica Elite League (NJEL).

That is the word from the local governing body ahead of the inaugural tournament which is set to start next February.

“Our national players have to play in it,” said Netball Jamaica president Marva Bernard during the Sports Club forum at the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

The NJEL, which will replace the Super League as the top netball club competition, is expected to bring a uniformed coaching structure which should foster consistent competition and intense action.

With the expectancy of balanced competition, offering an attractive product and securing an overall improved sponsorship package is also on the agenda and Bernard noted that those are tantamount to the tournament’s success.

“We need the elite players and we need the sponsors on board. Berger Paints [a long-standing corporate partner] has first rights to sponsor this league.

“Berger have agreed in principle to be a part because it’s their league that we are rebranding and reformatting and they have bought into it,” she said.

She conceded, however, that while the league will have the services of recently voted Fast5 Championship Most Valuable Player Thristina Harwood, among other top netballers, the country’s two most regarded shooters Romelda Aiken and Jhaniele Fowler, will be missing due to contractual obligations.

Both will be competing in the ANZ Netball Championships — played among teams in Australia and New Zealand.

She said local stakeholders are already looking at ways to allow the pair to compete on the local club circuit in the future.

“Their season (with their respective ANZ teams) will clash with ours. But one potential sponsor has suggested that we could move the (NJEL) League down to make it possible for those girls to play. This won’t happen in year one, but it’s something we are working on.”

Bernard added that Jamaica’s top “amateur and non-amateur players” who are 16 years and older are eligible. She explained that “all the legalities” will be ironed out to facilitate the participation of minors.

The NJEL will also be open to regional and other international players and Netball Jamaica has assured that the competition has been structured to avoid fixture clashes with the international calender.

Players will join teams on annual contracts based on a draft system to ensure a balance of talent. Daley-Morris, who said the draft is set for December 10, added that a handful of persons, mostly citing loyalty to traditional teams, were opposed to scrapping the Super League.

However, Harwood, the precociously talented goal-attack, endorsed the shift to a semi-professional set-up.

“I wanted this to happen in order for Netball Jamaica to be competitive because playing the Super League with the UWI Pelicans, I was really tired of Jamalco winning and winning and with them having so many of the national players.

“I really wanted this to come up to split up the players so we can all compete and people will be motivated because they don’t want to lose their contracts. Other players are saying the same because we want the competitiveness,” she told reporters and editors.

From a revenue-earning perspective, Herman Athias, a volunteering consultant for Netball Jamaica, insisted the move is the right one.

“The whole thing of the business of sport is critical. Sport is a profession and we need to take this semi-professional league and use it as an opportunity. We have to display to all involved some of the opportunities that are available.”

He added that the league would bring netball to a wider spread of Jamaica.

“One of the issues right now with netball is that most of the games are played in Kingston and we have to take the game across the country in order to build the kind of teams and expertise,” Athias said.

Also in attendance for the forum were Netball Jamaica general manager Karen Anderson and national head coach Oberon Pitterson-Nattie.