23 hours ago
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GYASI MERRIQUE
Senior Repoter/Producer
Trinidad and Tobago’s senior netball team will not have much of an acclimitisation period in neighbouring Barbados, before beginning their Americas Netball World Cup Qualifiers there tomorrow.
The Calypso Girls will depart T&T at 8:30 PM today to participate in the October 19 to 26 tournament at the Sir Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.
The newly minted Central America and Caribbean Games gold medallists are highly fancied to top the round-robin group competition, where each of the eight nations will play each other once. The top two teams at the end of single-round group play will then advance to the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia from August 25 to September 5.
Jamaica, who T&T defeated 56-49 to win the CAC Games gold in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in August, and whose alternate team placed second at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, will not participate in the regional qualifier owing to their status as the fourth-ranked team in the world.
With the world number one team, Australia automatically qualified as hosts; New Zealand (2nd), England (3rd), Jamaica (4th), South Africa (5th), and Uganda (6th) are also pre-qualified based on their respective world ranks.
Meanwhile, in addition to the top two Americas teams, two teams, each from Asia, Oceania, Africa and Europe, will also earn berths at Sydney.
T&T Head Coach Liselle Johnson, who travelled ahead of her players yesterday, retained the core of the successful CAC Games squad with eight players making it to the World Cup Qualifiers selection, including CAC Games captain Kalifa McCollin.
Johnson’s 12-member team also includes the England-based duo Samantha Wallace-Joseph and Kira Rothwell, Shaquanda Greene-Noel, Maikea Bramble, Shantel Seemungal, Nekesha Gomes, and Rayann Bristol.
Jerecia McEachrane is the only player from the team which T&T sent to the Commonwealth Games, which overlapped with the CAC Games. That team placed 12th out of 12 teams, without winning any of their six matches.
Johnson also brought in veteran defensive player Crystal-Ann George, 42, who last wore the national colours in 2020, along with another internationally capped defender, Anecia Baptiste-Rodriguez, and uncapped goal-shooter Pearl St John.
Among the gold medal-winning CAC Games players who will not form part of the team to Barbados are defender Kielle Conelly, centre Tia Bruno and goal-attack Rehanna Ali.
Johnson’s technical staff, however, remains unchanged from the CAC Games, with Leslie-Ann Bacquaine set to retain her role as assistant coach and Cynthia Stephenson staying on as team manager.
Speaking following her team’s success in Santo Domingo in August, as well as the Commonwealth Games team’s exploits in Scotland, Johnson issued a direct appeal for national support for the Calypso Girls, stating, “Coming out of this, I do hope that Trinidad and Tobago can regain some confidence in the sport, and we get the respect that the sport deserves throughout the country,” Johnson said. “And hopefully corporate Trinidad and Tobago can buy into the team to help us, because there are some things that the team needs that cannot always be provided.”
Meanwhile, the Netball Americas is also hosting its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Barbados. The two-day meeting began yesterday and concludes today with the Americas Netball executive elections.
Long-standing T&T administrator, former national player and coach and current Regional President and World Netball Regional Director Dr Bridget Adams is contesting the position of president, while Coreen David is vying for the post of secretary.
Netball T&T president, Debbie-Ann Francois is also attending the AGM.
NB: Please put in Box – Team & schedule.
T&T NATIONAL TEAM
Samantha Wallace-Joseph
Kira Rothwell
Kalifa Mc Collin
Maikea Bramble
Pearl St John
Shantel Seemungal
Jerecia Mc Eachrane
Shaquanda Greene-Noel
Anecia Baptiste-Rodriguez
Nekesha Gomes
Crystal George
Rayann Bristol
Manager – Cynthia Stephenson
Head Coach – Liselle Johnson
Assistant Coach – Leslie-Ann Bacquain
Massage Therapist – Jerome Brown
Physiotherapist – Cydney Baird
Team Schedule
TTO vs Grenada – Oct 19, 2pm
SVG vs TTO – Oct 20, 6pm
TTO vs USA – Oct 21, 8pm
TTO vs Canada – Oct 23, 2pm
St Lucia vs TTO – Oct 24, 6pm
TTO vs BVI – Oct 25, 6pm
Barbados vs TTO – Oct 26, 8pm
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