By Neto Baptiste
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Netball Association (ABNA), Karen Joseph, has no regrets over her decision to enter the senior national women’s team into the recently concluded Netball Americas World Cup Qualifiers held in Jamaica.
As a matter of a fact, the former national goal shoot said that if given the opportunity again, she would make the same decision.
“The OECS needs to be exposed to a higher level of netball an, until we do that we don’t know where we are. And, if I have to do it again I will so we could go again because that’s where we realise where we are and where we need to go. We need to invest more in netball at the grassroots because, just look at our size of athletes compared to the others — we’re like dwarfs to the other teams. But, in-spite of what I see there, I know from what I saw on the court that the girls put up a fight,” she said.
Antigua and Barbuda went winless during the qualifiers, going under by big margins to a number of the regional powerhouses.
Individuals had questioned the decision to enter the team into the competition given the level of play expected and the fact that netball in Antigua is slowly returning to normalcy following years of dormancy.
Joseph believes that with help from the more established countries in netball, all others will improve.
“We can play tri-series against Dominica, St Kitts, and St Lucia, and we can come together and that’s where we are lacking in our region and why the other regions are so far ahead of us. I also think that Barbados and Trinidad and Jamaica, as the top three in our region, need to come and help the OECS region in order for us to be on that level,” she said.
Antigua and Barbuda’s best showing in the tournament came against the Cayman Islands which they lost 47-42. They were however hammered 80-23 by Jamaica and 55 24 to Trinidad and Tobago amongst other losses.