12 countries to participate in Asian Youth Netball

By Susil Premalal 

The Asian Netball Association has decided that 12 countries including Sri Lanka will participate in the 12th Asian youth (U-21) netball championship 2023.  
The tournament is scheduled to be held in South Korea from June 10 to 17.  

Accordingly, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, India and Maldives will compete under Pool ‘A’.  
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Taiwan, South Korea and Pakistan will compete under Pool ‘B’.  

Malaysia, who won the last 2019 Asian Championship, will compete in Pool ‘A’, while Singapore, who won the runner-up, and Sri Lanka, who placed third, will compete in Pool ‘B’ in the Pelimanariy Round of the tournament.  

 The two teams that win the championship and runner-up in this year’s Asian Netball tournament will qualify for the upcoming World Youth Netball Championship.  
The world youth netball championship was scheduled to be held in 2021 but was canceled by the International Netball Federation due to the Covid-19 Pandamic at that time.  
 The year of the respective tournament has not been decided yet.  

 Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Netball Federation has started training a squad consisting of 18 female players for the Asian Netball Tournament.  

The National Netball Selection Committee has decided to hold the Final Selection on April 2 to select the final twelve players representing the relevant tournament.  
 According to the history of Asian netball competitions, Sri Lanka has won the Asian youth netball championship on three occasions. 

1998, 2002 and 2015 were the three occasions when they won the championship.