Marva Bernard, president of Americas Netball (AN), says members of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), of which she is a part, are equally upbeat about the positive spin-offs that will come as a result of the Netball World Cup Qualifiers being hosted in Jamaica.

Aside from the possibility that it can turn around a profit — through sponsorship deals, broadcast rights and shrewd spending — Bernard, who has always been big on rolling out development programmes across the region, believes the qualifiers provides one such opportunity on which teams should capitalise.

The qualifiers, scheduled for October 15-22 at the National Indoor Sports Centre, will see eight countries from the region battling for two spots to next year’s Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.

Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, Cayman Islands, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the USA are the teams hunting the available spaces.

Though already qualified for the World Cup, the number-three ranked Sunshine Girls will be the tournament’s ninth team as they seek to add ranking points.

“This tournament is very, very significant to the development of the game in the region. We have to engage the netballers. Competition is heart of sport and if they are not competing, they are playing recreationally and even then they want competition because you can only get better by playing and playing teams better than you are.

“It also open up avenues for coaches, umpires, team managers and officials. We have to see this as an opportunity to develop other leadership groups in our sport,” Bernard told the Jamaica Observer prior to boarding a flight from London to Cape Town, for a netball board meeting.

“Americas Netball has been having capacity-building courses during the downtime of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently we are having a series of webinars on how to establish systems and structures in our netball countries to produce better teams. These are hosted by Tracey Fear, a former high performance manager of Netball New Zealand and two teams in the Suncorp Super League.

“So we are doing everything to improve the performances. We have had several coaching courses and one is due to start next week. Hopefully coaches from Jamaica can be exported to the region as several countries are ranked below 20. And they can be ranked higher with improved coaching systems and structures,” she added.

With this being the final year of her four-year tenure as president of Americas Netball, Bernard, who will not be seeking re-election, expressed pride that she can leave the post knowing she accomplished all her goals, one of which was to bring another major championship to the island.

“I agreed to serve four years and to try and make a positive difference in the region building on what I got and one of the things that has not happened in recent times is that a senior championship was not held in Jamaica because of COVID.

“So when Netball Jamaica bid to host this, even though they have already qualified, it in a sense brought back the plan that the executive had to host some more tournaments in the region,” Bernard shared.

“So, yes it’s a very proud moment for me and I have been telling people that based on the track record of Jamaica hosting profitable championships in terms of the 2003 World Championships and the 2018 High School Championship, that this championship holds much potential,” she added.

Along with the Americas Netball secretary, Bernard also acquired the expertise of former IFNA President Molly Rhone and former Netball Jamaica President Vilma McDonald as part of the LOC to ensure a seamless execution of the tournament.

“The three of us are giving our energies to this event to make sure that it is a thrilling world class event that Jamaica is known to be able to host. So it’s a whole range of emotions. I am very happy, this is my swansong in many ways so I want it to be a success. Molly and Vilma wants to replicate the excitement and hub of activities and feel goodness of the 2003 championship and we know it can be done,” Bernard, who also led Netball Jamaica for many years, noted.

“So my expectations are for the tournament to not only be a financial success but also a social success. We want the teams to come and enjoy themselves and we want the sponsors to come on board, it’s been a hard grind and we have received some good support from some longstanding netball sponsors but we need so much more to make this happen. And we must express gratitude to our patron Minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, and all the sponsors that have already come on board,” she said.

And while Jamaica is ranked way ahead of their regional counterparts, the veteran sports administrator is anticipating some intense competition from the lower ranked teams.

Jamaica’s games will only count towards ranking points and as such, will not be factored on the final results of qualification.

“These games give the Jamaicans and the other teams good match practice and the round-robin format affords them all an opportunity to not only get rankings points but crucially for the Americas teams to compete together. Not since 1990 has there been a tournament with the senior teams from the region playing in Jamaica.

“The Sunshine Girls don’t play at home a lot. And while they all may not play in all the matches, it is indeed a welcome opportunity for them to be seen and for the host country Jamaica to also be seen from a commercial and broadcast development point of view,” Bernard stated.

“It’s absolutely a good thing for them and also the development players in NJ will also get a chance to play top class competition and create momentum and excitement for the local netball fans including sponsors and potential sponsors.

“If the crowds and sponsors turn out to support the tournament then it will be profitable and to the benefit of NJ and also the participants who will share in any profit that is made,” she ended.