By Carlena Knight
Netballers could more than likely see the return of competitive local games later this year as plans are in motion for the hosting of a village league.
This was revealed by President of the Antigua and Barbuda Netball Association (ABNA), Karen Joseph.
“We are planning on hosting a village league later this year. It is something that we are looking at. We have to bring back the taste of netball into the players’ mouths. Village league is a league that I love because it goes into the community, and it’s a joy to see the villagers come out and watch their village play. So, that is something we are looking at later down in the year,” Joseph revealed.
She explained that it is still too early to determine if the league will mimic the same format from previous years.
“We usually do it with male and female [players], but we are not sure yet what the route will be for this year, but we are seriously looking at involving the young ones so, we want to have a junior league as well,” she said.
The issue of venues being in no condition to host games is not one that would plague the ABNA according to Joseph.
She did however mention that the state of the YMCA Sports Complex needs to be addressed.
“The village league is basically in the community and where we go most of them have the facilities, but it is not a case where we are going to stay in one area. We put matches only on the weekends to make sure that that happens, but in terms of YMCA, we need to refurbish it so that it can be up to par so that we can host even international tournaments,” she added.
Local games have not been played in over a year due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.