With the Elite League scheduled to begin next month, Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls Vice-Captain Shanice Beckford says she is happy as the competition will provide a major opportunity for local-based players to impress selectors ahead of this summer’s Netball World Cup.

The tournament is scheduled for Cape Town, South Africa, from July 28 to August 6.

The Elite League, Jamaica’s top netball competition, was last contested in 2019. Its absence has been due to the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with lack of sponsorship.

Netball Jamaica announced on Friday that this year’s competition has attracted four teams. It is set to begin March 10 at the Leila Robinson courts and is to run for six weeks.

Beckford, who is among local-based players vying for spots on the Sunshine Girls team, told the Jamaica Observer they are looking forward to the start of the league.

“The Sunshine Girls are preparing for this year’s World Championship so this league will definitely help the local-based players in our preparations for the World Championship, in terms of getting playing time on court.

“This league is crucial for us because a lot of local-based players are here and are not playing any competitive netball and so our overseas-based players are always going to be ahead of us in the Sunshine Girls squad when it comes to international games,” she said.

The Sunshine Girls currently have six players — Captain Jhaniele Fowler, Shamera Sterling, Shimona Nelson, Latanya Wilson, Jodi-Ann Ward, and Kadie-Ann Dehaney — plying their trade in the Suncorp Super Netball League in Australia.

Beckford said the staging of the Elite League will help to level the playing field for the local-based players.

“I think it is unfair to us as local-based players because you can see where, when we play overseas, the overseas-based players are more experienced, more match fit, and it is very important for us to have this league this year. This league will definitely help the local players to be at our best and match ready for the World Championships that is coming this year,” she explained.

Marathon Insurance Brokers is the title sponsor for this year’s league, with their sponsorship of $3 million to be spread over two years.

However, organisers say they require an additional $4.5 million to fund the running of the competition.

Beckford, a member of the Sunshine Girls’ team that won a historic silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, last year, urged others to partner with the league.

“I am imploring the whole of corporate Jamaica to come on board with the league because we need the money to run this competition, and if we get the funds that are needed then maybe we can run it as big as the leagues in England and Australia,” she said.

— Robert Bailey