Francis

A confident Sunshine Girls team will bow into action on today's opening day of the first staging of the World Series Fast Net Championships in Manchester, England.

"We are very confident because we know that we have a good opportunity to win this championships, and it seems to me that we have the edge over all the other teams in this tournament," head coach Connie Francis told The Gleaner yesterday.

The Sunshine Girls will play three matches today. They open their account against Australia at 3:15 p.m. (9:15 a.m. Ja time), then Samoa four hours later, at 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. Ja time) and their final game will be against New Zealand at 9 p.m. (3 p.m. Ja time). The other teams taking part in the tournament are England and Malawi.

The Fast Net Championships is a new initiative by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) to increase the profile of the sport globally.

The tournament will be contested by the top-six teams in the world, using a brand-new set of rules. Each match promises to be fast and games will be played over four six-minute quarters.

"I think we have to shoot well and play good tactical defence and we also have to make sure that we take care of the ball whenever we are in possession of it and I believe once we can achieve this, then we should win all our games," Francis said.

The Sunshine Girls have won their two practice games in England and according to Francis, the girls have adapted to conditions very nicely.

Full of confidence

The Jamaica team, which will be captained by Simone Forbes, includes one new player, Nordia Hanson. The squad also includes four members of the Under-21 side. They are Vanessa Walker, Crystal Gordon, Malysha Kelly and Sateva Taylor. Francis said the juniors are full of confidence.

"They are very confident. They are coming in on a high because they have just won the bronze medal in the Under-21 World Champion-ships in the Cook Islands and they have trained very hard for for it and I know that they are going to make us proud."

The squad is completed by Romelda Aiken, Nadine Bryan, Nichala Gibson, Sasher-Gaye Henry, Nicole Aiken, Althea Byfield and Paula Thompson.