Sri Lanka’s netball team will field new faces with a new captain under a new coach when they leaving for the forthcoming Nations Cup 2013 Netball Tournament starting on December 1 at Toa Payoh Sports Hall, Singapore.
With six countries participating in the tournament, Sri Lanka is seeded fourth according to their ranking which is also the position that Sri Lanka finished at the last nations cup tournament. Sri Lanka team is lead by its new captain Mareesha Fernando and is coached by Somitha Alwis, and this will be their first outing be it local or international events.
Semini Alwis who captained the Sri Lanka under-23 team will be the vice captain of the national team.
Team will be accompanied by assistant coach D.N. Prasadi and Dr. Lal Ekanayake.
Prasadi said that the team is in better shape for a good contest as they had residential training camp for nearly a month.
“Team was finalized by November 1 and we started residential training in Colombo from November 3. We played several practice matches and are in better shape both mentally and physically. Players will be going home after training on November 27 and we will be leaving for the championship the next day,”said Prasadi.
Sri Lanka team comprises of three schoolgirls where two players from Visakha, Thisala Algama and Gayani Dissanayake are with international exposure while Gayanjali Amarasena is the newest schoolgirl from Girls High School, Kandy. Sri Lanka will also comprise of ex-captain and world’s tallest netball player in Tarjini Shivalingam.
Participating teams and their world rankings:
Papua New Guinea (PNG) – 17, USA – 19, Singapore – 21, Sri Lanka – 23, Republic of Ireland – 28, Uganda – (No world ranking currently due to lack of international exposure)
