The Petroleum Company of Jamaica (Petcom) extended its sponsorship of Netball Jamaica with the presentation of a symbolic cheque for $800,000 at the Netball House in St Andrew on Thursday.

Robert Gibbs, Petcom’s sales & marketing manager, said that it was easy to renew the sponsorship at this time as it represents one national organisation supporting another that seeks to provide for the females of Jamaica.

He pointed to the story of a netballer, who said that she welcomed being driven home to Manchester from training rather than being on the road late and not knowing when she would reach home after training.

Gibbs noted that the sponsorship will cover fuel for the two Netball Jamaica buses and cooking gas for the stove at the Netball House for this year. He indicated that Petcom had been sponsoring Netball Jamaica for the past five years and will continue for the foreseeable future.

Netball Jamaica’s president, Dr Paula Daley-Morris, was pleased with Petcom’s continued support of the national netball programme, which would help the organisation to provide transportation for its players and to provide balanced meals for the players in camp.

Dr Daley-Morris spoke about the fact that during the past twenty years the Sunshine Girls ranked no lower than fifth. She referred to local research that showed that 250,000 females (including adults and children) play netball. She said that the organisation’s goal is to double that figure in five years in light of the plan to take the sport islandwide with its national competitions.

When asked about the next move for the Sunshine Girls, the president said that the team was in preparation for a busy time later in the year. They will play New Zealand in September then they go off to South Africa for an invitational series dubbed the Diamond Series. The team will then play in Australia.