By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Netball World Cup (NWC), previously known as the World Netball Championships, brings together the world’s top teams and represents netball’s flagship event.
The event will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from the 28th July to the 6th August 2023 at the International Convention Center.
Speaking on the eve of the Netball World Cup 2023, Tournament Director Priscilla Masisi says all preparations have been completed and the venue is good to go.
“It’s been a long journey but finally we are here… we are ready to go, the place looks beautiful, thinking that we started with an empty venue that didn’t have anything and we had to build it up from scratch, putting in the seats, the lighting, the rigging and also ensuring that everything is up to standard,” she said.
Masisi added that a team of 300 volunteers have been recruited from across South Africa and abroad to help with the smooth running of the tournament.
The traditional captains’ candle-lighting ceremony took place on Wednesday night, with a players dinner scheduled for Thursday night, ahead of the first matches on Friday morning. The official opening ceremony will follow at 4pm on Friday.
Prior to the opening ceremony, the South African National Defence Force will conduct a spectacular fly-by above the Cape Town International Convention Centre, where the tournament is being held.
Jamaica netball players ‘ready to go home’ after alleged theft
The host city was placed under the spotlight for the wrong reasons on the eve of the global spectacle when members of the Jamaican team were left furious and frustrated following an alleged theft in Cape Town.
Jhaniele Fowler, the captain of the Sunshine Girls, posted on social media that she had been robbed.
“This is so unfortunate. This place isn’t safe,” Fowler claimed ahead of her team’s opening World Cup match against Sri Lanka on Friday.
“First they stole money from my purse now people trying to come in on us in our rooms. Really!!!!”
Fowler had been seen promoting the game of netball among the local youth in the build-up to the tournament, contributing to sports development in the Western Cape.
Confidence in sccesful World Cup
South Africa’s Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Zizi Kodwa said, “I was happy to receive a very positive report from all stakeholders that are strategically working towards a very successful tournament,” he said.
“I must indicate that for us, hosting an event of this magnitude is to relive the dream of [former president] Nelson Mandela which defines sport as a catalyst and a tool for building a nation.
“Therefore for us, it’s not about what happens on the field but also the ability of sport to mobilise and organise people and bring us together.
“It is indeed a historic event – its 60th anniversary coinciding with the fact that it’s coming for the first time on African soil,” added Kodwa.
The Netball World Cup 2023 gets under way with the defending champions New Zealand taking on Trinidad and Tobago at 9am on Friday while Tonga face off with Fiji at the same time.
That will be followed by a showdown between 11-time champions Australia and Zimbabwe at 11am while the She Cranes of Uganda take on Singapore at the same time.
The opening ceremony will kick off the evening session before hosts South Africa begin their campaign against Wales at 6pm and Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls take on Sri Lanka.
The final matches of the day will see England up against Barbados and Malawi versus Scotland. Both those matches begin at 8pm.
The Netball World Cup 2023 takes place from 28 July to 6 August at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Details on tickets and travel packages and more information on the tournament are all available on the official website (www.nwc2023.org.za) with a range of tickets and packages still on offer.