Allison-McCracken backs inexperienced Sunshine Girls
ALL EYES will be fixed on head coach Jermaine AllisonMcCracken when Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls take on Caribbean side Barbados in the opening match of their three-Test series today.
The match will be played at the National Arena, starting at 7 p.m.
The Britain-born Allison-McCracken, who was installed as head coach in March, has come in for a lot of criticism in recent weeks after she sent home three senior players – Shanice Beckford, Khadijah Williams and Nicole Dixon – for what she deemed “inappropriate behaviour”.
Allison-McCracken, who is coaching at this level for the first time, has assembled a largely inexperienced unit for the series.
The Sunshine Girls team includes seven newcomers, who will be making their senior team debut in the series. Shameera Sterling, Stacy-Ann Facey and Thristina Harwood are the most capped players on Jamaica’s team.
The team will be without a number of the senior players for the series, including the likes of top shooters Romelda Aiken and Jhaniele Fowler Reid, along with Vangelee Williams, Malysha Kelly, Paula Thompson, and Kadie-Ann Duhaney
However, despite this, AllisonMcCracken said the Sunshine Girls unit has a lot of quality and she is confident that the team will do well in the series.
“I have an amazing squad. I have real depth in the squad and range of players in each area and so I have choices,” said Allison-McCracken.
Meanwhile, Sandra Bruce-Small, coach of Barbados’ netball team, said she is expecting a tough series from the Sunshine Girls despite the absence of a number of their senior players.
“I don’t know much about the composition, but I have recognised quite a few of the senior girls and so I always expect that any Jamaican team will be a strong team,” said Bruce-Small.
“Jamaica is ranked number four in the world and we are ranked number 12 and so, we are the underdogs here,” she said.
Bruce-Small added: “I figure that Jamaica is very strong in the region, and so even without their senior players, I think that Jamaica will still have a very strong team,” Bruce-Small added.