Karen Baugh, president of Netball Jamaica (NJ), says the upcoming three-Test netball series away to world number one ranked Australia offers crucial preparation for the senior Sunshine Girls, with the main objective being the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

The games are scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 2, and the Sunshine Girls are aiming to build on their best-ever Commonwealth Games result, which was a silver medal at the 2022 Birmingham Games after losing to Australia’s Diamonds in the gold medal match.

Before that, Jamaica secured bronze medals in 2002, 2014, and 2018, consistently placing as a top-tier netball nation.

“We had signed the agreement with Australia from early last year as a part of both of us [preparing], leading up to the Commonwealth Games. This is another series that we are using to fine-tune the Sunshine Girls for the Commonwealth Games,” Baugh told the Jamaica Observer.

The series will be a tough challenge for the Sunshine Girls, but Baugh believes it’s an important opportunity for them to assess their skills against top-tier competition.

“Everybody has the same mandate, the same objectives to try out different combinations with their players and to kind of size up the competition and so we all doing the same thing,” she added.

The series is to open on February 5 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre, followed by a match on February 8 at Perth’s RAC Arena, and is to conclude on February 11 at Melbourne’s John Cain Arena. This will be the first standalone series between the teams in 15 years. Their most recent clash came at the 2023 Netball World Cup in South Africa where Australia defeated Jamaica in the semi-finals.

Despite chronic funding issues that have long-plagued NJ, Baugh said that everything is in place for the series.

“We are being supported. Obviously, we have some of our sponsors on-board here. We are also being supported by Netball Australia for the series to take place because, honestly, that is one of the things we struggled with — having enough funding to have these series on a regular basis, especially if it’s not home and away. You know, this is an away series, so a large part of it is being funded by Netball Australia,” she said.

The Sunshine Girls are coming off a 0-2 loss to host England Roses in the recent Vitality Horizon Netball series in December 2025. The Jamaicans were missing seven of their top players, but NJ president says the experience was valuable for the younger squad members

“Well, you know we played with a different squad than what was expected, but we still have to give kudos to the girls as they went out there and did their best. We really need to build depth in our squads as there are going to be times when everybody’s not available.

“So we really have to continue to give people opportunities to get on court and build depth that any seven we put on court knowing that they can put on a good show. Some of the senior players will be back in squad. We are still finalising the squad for the series but some of them will be available and you will see a slightly different mix for the Australian series,” Baugh said.

Baugh praised some standout performers from the England series.

“I think Crystal Plummer and Simone Gordon really stepped up and brought another level of play. We like to see when we put players out there on the court that, you know, somebody we never expected to will bring it and that all will come together for them on a particular series. So we continue to work on the whole squad,” Baugh said.

Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls celebrate during netball competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. (Photo: Observer file)