The Sri Lanka Netball Federation has issued a press release mentioning the upcoming matches and schdule in Sri Lanka’s netball this year.
Accordingly, the National Netball Championship 2024 has been planned to be held at the Wennappuwa, Albert Peiris Stadium on the 20th and 21st January. Here, the Netball Federation announces that two teams from one affiliated district association can be added to this year’s tournament. So far, 34 teams have confirmed their participation.
The netball federation states that among the players who show great performance in the tournament,
The best midfield player
The best keeper
The best shooter
Netball queen (The best player of the tournament) will be evaluated and awarded at the national level.
Also, a special book compiled for the Centenary celebration of Sri Lanka Netball is also going to be released this year.
- The Sri Lanka Netball team is off to Singapore for the Nations Cup
- Tharjini Sivalingam retires
- 2024 වසර වෙනුවෙන් ශ්රී ලංකා දැල්පන්දුවේ බලාපොරොත්තු
- Sri Lanka Netball Head Coach Granted an Extension
Meanwhile, the National Junior Netball Championship 2024 is scheduled to be held in the first week of March in Kurunegala or Badulla* and the Inter-Association Tournament is planned to be held in the third week of February at the Torrington ground in Colombo.
*One of the two areas will be chosen depending on the prevailing weather conditions.
Also, the netball federation has confirmed that it hopes to implement Netball squads under the age of 19 in districts, for the purpose of the World Youth Netball Championship to be held in 2025 as well as the Asian Youth Netball Championship.
This year, the biggest hope for Sri Lankan netball at the international level is the Asian Championship which will start in Saudi Arabia on the 27th of September. P.D.N Prasadi is already working on with the team targeting that tournament. Under the coaching of Ms. Prasadi, the national Netball squad consisting of 18 players has started training.
Functioning of the Sri Lanka Netball Federation in 2023
Especially in the past year 2023, Sri Lanka netball participated in several international tournaments and had to face significant level of victories as well as unexpected defeats in them.
World Netball Championship 2023 – From July 27th to August 08th at South Africa
Asian Youth Netball Championship – From June 10th to June 17th at South Korea
Nations Cup – From October 22nd to October 28th
The whole focus of this international exposure was to get all the players, coaches and the management to a healthy winning mentality.
Meanwhile, in addition to national level players, several local judges also passed special milestones last year. Among these, the World Netball Federation awarded ITID (International Talent Identified Umpire) status to Sri Lankan referee Eranga Sithara as a referee of international caliber.
This was the first step of getting the prestigious IUA (International Umpire Award) post which is awarded to limited number of referees in the world based on their performance.
Meanwhile, the written tests of umpire rankings of A,B,C ranks successfully held in Sinhala, Tamil and English mediums in the last year. The exam was held in 5 examination centers and the practical examination was held on district basis.
For the Asian Youth Netball Championship 2023, two of the Sri Lankan referees got the chance to participate. They are Eranga Sithara and Niroshan Sandaranga. Here, for the first time a Sri Lankan referee got the “Asian A” ranking. Eranga Sithara was the man behind that success. Also, Eranga got the chance to referee the final match of the Asian Youth Championship as well.
Eranga Sithara was invited for the Nations Cup tournament in Singapore, which was the first time in the history, as well as being able to referee the final of the championship. This was another special occasion for Sri Lanka Netball umpires.
Also, for the Maldives championship 12 of our netball referees had been called to participate in refereeing the tournament.
Three of our well-known coaches had the chance to participate in Asian inter media coaches ranking workshop which was held in Singapore.
A one-year course was held once a month to increase the basic knowledge of the coaches in the 2023.
Last year The Papare fulfilled the responsibility of bringing you information about all the special moments of local netball and is ready to fulfill the same responsibility this year too, stay with The Papare the no.01 sports channel in Sri Lanka.
