By Susil Premalal

The Sri Lanka Youth Netball Team (Under-21) will face a challenging year in 2021, according to Victoria Lakshmi, President of the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka (NFSL).

The 12th Asian Youth Netball Championship (South Korea) in August and the 9th Youth Netball World Championship (Fiji) in December are the two major international competitions for the National Under-21 Team.

Being the leading netball nation in Asia, the NFSL is confident Sri Lanka could assert their supremacy at the Asian Youth Netball Championship.

Having already qualified for the Youth World Cup after clinching third spot at the 2017 Asian Youth championship, Sri Lanka’s goal is to defeat two strong sides in the first-round of the global event and advance to the second-round.

Malaysia and Singapore who are champions and runners-up respectively at the Asian Youth Netball Championships are the other two Asian teams in the Youth World Cup.

Sri Lanka have emerged champions in the Asian Youth Netball tournaments in 1998 and 2015.

With the Asian Youth Netball and Youth World Cup in mind, the NFSL hopes to begin National Pool training in January following Health Ministry guidelines once the Coronavirus outbreak eases.

There are 57 players in the youth pool (42 from Western Province and 15 National players). The NFSL also hopes to identify talented players from the District leagues.

The NFSL also hopes to appoint a National youth netball coach in January and have called for applications from suitable candidates.

Meanwhile, the NFSL is planning to conduct a three-nation tournament comprising Singapore, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in April in Colombo to give international exposure to National youth players.

New Zealand have promised to bring a top club side while the National Teams of Sri Lanka and Singapore will be competing in this event.