Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls will begin their quest to end their 16-year medal drought at the Netball World Cup (NWC) when they take on minnows Sri Lanka in their opening game of the tournament in Pool C in Cape Town, South Africa.

Match time is 11:00 am Jamaica time.

The Sunshine Girls, who are one of the favourites to win the gold medal, will enter this year’s tournament oozing confidence, this after their historic silver medal-winning performance at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, last August.

Despite the performance at the Commonwealth Games last year, the Jamaicans have come up empty-handed at the previous three NWC tournaments. In fact, the Sunshine Girls, who are ranked fourth in the world, finished a disappointing fifth at the last championships, which were held in Liverpool, England in 2019.

Head coach of the Sunshine Girls Connie Francis said the Jamaicans are pumped up for the tournament and ready to put on an excellent showing for the country.

“The ladies are mentally and physically prepared. They are locked into doing something special in this tournament. They are an extended family that are coming together to achieve a medal,” said Francis.

The Sri Lankans, who are ranked 15th in the world, should not pose much of a threat to the Jamaicans as their 15-member squad is an inexperienced one.

“We don’t know much about the Sri Lankans, but at this moment, I’m pulling up some games that they played during this year and they can’t be taken lightly,” she said.

The Jamaicans will enter the tournament with one of the strongest teams in the competition, which includes captain Jhaniele Fowler, who is rated as the best shooter in the world, and vice-captain Shamera Sterling, who is regarded as the best defender.

Both players are among seven of the Sunshine Girls’ 15-member squad who ply their trade in the Australian Suncorp Super Netball League down under. The others are Romelda Aiken-Geroge, Latanya Wilson, Jodi-ann Ward, Shimona Nelson and Kadie-Ann Dehaney.

Francis pointed out that their preparation heading into the championships has been good, so it is now up to the players to go out there and execute.

“I know that all the teams are stepping up their preparations. We know that New Zealand are the defending champions and they will be coming hard and ready to defend their title,” she stated.

“Australia and even South Africa and all the other teams will be coming, too, and so it is about us tactically attacking these teams, and I know that we have the players in our squad who will execute well,” Francis ended.

Squad – Jhaniele Fowler (captain), Romelda Aiken, Shamera Sterling, Shimona Nelson, Kadie-Ann Dehaney, Jodiann Ward, Latanya Wilson, Shanice Beckford, Rebekah Robinson, Khadijah Williams, Nicole Dixon-Rochester, Adean Thomas, Crystal Plummer, Kimone Shaw, and Abigail Sutherland.