Title-holders Sri Lanka and Thailand will encounter it out in the curtain-raiser match of the 13th Asian Senior Netball Championships 2024, which is set to commence on 18 October in Bengaluru, India.
Though, what is rather alarming is that although the national players continue to ply their trade internationally, the sport’s local controlling body, the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka (NFSL), continues to remain dissolved since May.
This was as a consequence of the actions of former Sports Minister Harin Fernando, who dissolved it over its failure to conduct the election of office bearers before the annual cutoff date of 31 May.
Since its closure, the NFSL has been brought under the supervision of Director General of Sports Rear Admiral (Retd) Prof. Shemal Fernando, with no breakthrough yet in sight in relation to conducting the new Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The upcoming tournament will be jointly organised by the game’s continental ruling body Asia Netball and the Netball Federation of India (NFI), with 15 nations vying for supremacy until 27 October.
Defending champions Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, and Nepal have been placed in Group ‘A,’ while Singapore, the Maldives, Chinese Taipei, and Bahrain have been placed in Group ‘B’.
Malaysia, Brunei, Japan, and Iraq are set to contest the event from Group ‘C’ with Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia vying for honours from Group ‘D’.
In the meantime, Iraq will make their maiden appearance at this tournament. Sri Lanka’s second match of this championship will be against Nepal on 19 October and their third match will be against hosts India on the following day.
Netball analysts reckon that the six-time Asian champions are in pole position to prevail in each of their three first-round ties and thus advance to the semis-finals of the competition.
The national team is scheduled to move to Bengaluru on 15 October, following the completion of their ongoing training activities under Head Coach P.D.N. Prasadi.
The playoff matches and the semi-finals are slated for 25 and 26 October, with its finale to be staged 24 hours later.
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