SL face Jamaica in Netball World Cup opener today

By Susil Premalal
Sri Lanka will play their opening preliminary round group C match of the Netball World Cup 2023 against Jamaica today (28) in Cape Town, South Africa. This tournament will be held until August 6.  
According to the Netball World Ranking, Jamaica is number 4 and Sri Lanka number 15.  
“Jamaica is a strong team in the world. This match is very challenging for Sri Lanka, which has less experience in international matches. We know that it is difficult to win against Jamaica, who are among the top four teams in the world according to World Ranking. But the Sri Lankan players are expecting to give a good fight. Our target is to score more points against Jamaica,” Sri Lanka’s head coach Thilaka Jinadasa told ‘Daily Mirror’ yesterday.  

The second match of the preliminary round will be held tomorrow (29) against South Africa and the third match against Wales on July 30.   Six top netball teams in the world have qualified for the 2023 Netball World Cup.  
Australia (1), New Zealand (2), England (3), Jamaica (4), South Africa (5), and Malawi (6) qualified by Netball World Ranking.  
The other ten teams including Sri Lanka have qualified as champions and runner-up in the Oceania, Africa, Asia, Europe and American regional tournaments.  

 Australia, Tonga, Zimbabwe and Fiji are in Group ‘A’; England, Malawi, Scotland and Barbados are in Group ‘B’; Jamaica, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Wales are in Group ‘C’; New Zealand, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Singapore will compete in Group ‘D’ in the preliminary round.  
Australia has won the Netball World Cup 11 times and New Zealand five times. Sri Lanka finished 14th in the 2019 Liverpool World Cup netball tournament.