Rhone

Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter

Jamaica will be preparing for a November 2007 World Netball Championships in New Zealand, rather than a July one in Fiji.

The International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) yesterday accepted the offer of New Zealand after Jamaica, Australia and England said they would be unable accept its offer to host the tournament next year.

The opportunity arose for the countries to hold the competition after IFNA withdrew the championships from Fiji following a military coup d'état in that country.

Australia and England had both agreed to hold the competition in their countries if the tournament could have been pushed back until 2008.

At the time, Jamaica was the only country which agreed to look into the possibility of hosting the tournament in the July period it was originally scheduled for in Fiji.

However, competition from next year's Cricket World Cup in March meant the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) would have no luck in finding sponsors.

According to JNA Vice-President Dorothy Hobson, Jamaica made the right decision.

Not disappointed

"We aren't disappointed because this was just an unfortunate situation that we thought we might have been able to help with," she said.

"It would have been foolhardy of the netball association to do that without the proper sponsorship in place because it takes cash to care," she added, admitting that the Cricket World Cup and the timing of the association's requests for sponsorship played against them.

"Most of our sponsors would have committed themselves to the (Cricket) World Cup and while a number of persons expressed an interest, it is late and it is a lot of money," she said, pointing to the US$800,000 shelled out by Cable and Wireless in 2003.

"I believe we discussed it and we came to a decision we thought was best for Jamaica," said Hobson.

IFNA President Molly Rhone, in telling The Gleaner of the decision to go with New Zealand's proposal, said the changes to the stakeholders would be very slight.

"Nobody can do for next year. Both England and Australia would have done it if it was held the next year but we had to consider a number of factors. Teams would have already begun preparations for this year, New Zealand is in the same region as Fiji and we already had a host TV broadcast from New Zealand, and while we'll have to change the contract at least we know that they are still interested in doing it there," said Rhone.

Rhone also congratulated the countries for coming forward very quickly.

"Jamaica came forward very quickly but they said they would have problems with the Cricket World Cup and that turned out to be true. New Zealand were also very quick out of the gate and we have to be grateful," said Rhone.

In a press release, Netball New Zealand (NNZ) had said they were working out logistics and that the competition would not be compromised.

The tournament was withdrawn from Fiji earlier this month and the Kiwis are proposing to stage the event four months later than the original summer dates of July 10-21.

Scoping exercise

"NNZ has undertaken a scoping exercise that confirmed the best time frame for the World Netball Championships to be held in New Zealand was November 2007," NNZ stated.

"This would ensure that the showcase event of netball was not compromised," NNZ added.

NNZ Board Chairman Don Mackinnon said the November date would give NNZ the optimal time frame to plan and execute the World Netball Championships in 2007.