Jamaica Netball Association

Antigua to host CNA U-16 netball tournament
Sunday March 16 2008

Antigua will be the host venue for the 10th Annual Caribbean Netball Association’s (CNA) under-16 Youth Tournament slated for 3-11 April. This is according to the tournament’s Chairperson and CNA representative, Yvette Francis, who told the Antigua Sun that outside of not having a sponsor for the event as yet, that plans are well on there way for the hosting of the competition.

“This is the 10th time that the Caribbean Netball Association will be holding these championships and it was introduced to give our players a feel of what playing in a championship is all about because we found that throughout the Caribbean we entered the senior championships and our girls were not exposed to a championships before that so the under-16 championships were introduce to complement the under-23 OECS championships,” she said.

"The only problem that we are having is that the tournament is not sponsored and we are still trying to negotiate with quite a number of corporate citizens to assist us but if anyone would like to help us we would willing accept that help."
“To run a tournament like this will run us in the region of $50,000 to $60,000 and although the teams are paying their own accommodations and their own travel, we still have to provide certain pertinent things like transportation, food and other amenities so we are appealing to the corporate citizens to come forward and assist us,” Francis added.

The former Antigua and Barbuda Netball Association president went on to state that some nine teams will be taking part in the competition this time around and they would be placed in two zones as to make the tournament more competitive.

“Because we have nine teams participating, we have been forced to put them into zones so it is not going to be a round-robin tournament but we will have two zones.

Zone One will comprise of Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, Montserrat, Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago while Zone Two will host Barbados, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada and St. Lucia,” she said.

“The tournament should be quite competitive because we will be having the top youth teams here – we are having Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and St. Vincent & the Grenadines and those four countries have been producing top-quality netball for the past five years so the competition is going to be tight,” Francis told the SUN.

During the tournament, the CNA will also be holding its Annual General Meeting here in Antigua where it is expected that elections will also be held.
Also, a 29-member Antigua and Barbuda training squad is currently in preparation for the upcoming tournament.