SUNSHINE GIRLS TEAM
BY THE time the Netball World Cup came around at the end of July in 2023, the Sunshine Girls were more than dark horses to capture a title that has, throughout the team’s storied history, been elusive.
The team, arguably the best line-up of players in the country’s history, had threatened the status quo of world netball earlier when they finished second at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
On their way to a famous placing in those 2022 Games in Birmingham, England, the Sunshine Girls had shocked Australia, the undoubted favourites for the title.
Australia would return to exact some revenge on the Sunshine Girls, but the writing for what was to take place at the World Cup a year later, was already on the wall.
As providence would have it, it was again Australia who stymied the Sunshine Girls charge to a gold medal, but not before the Jamaicans struck fear into the hearts of all who they would face in Cape Town, South Africa.
Beginning with Sri Lanka on July 28, 2023, the Jamaicans announced themselves by becoming the first team at the World Cup to clear 100 goals, demolishing the minnows 105-25.
Scotland would prove a tougher nut to crack, but the 75-40 win the Sunshine Girls enjoyed the following day suggested they were the real deal, and upsets could have been on the cards.
The more games the Jamaicans played, the tougher the opponents, and South Africa were a team on the improve.
However, the 67-49 victory the Sunshine Girls had, suggested there were no issues and that the Jamaicans were, in fact, just like a vehicle with a powerful engine purring down the highway, not ready to roar into the fast lane just yet.
Malawi had pushed the Jamaicans hard at the last World Cup and on July 31, provided the Sunshine Girls with what was very much an acid test. The Sunshine Girls passed. The 61-49 result suggested the Sunshine Girls had gotten over the shock of the test Malawi proved to be last time out.
The Sunshine Girls have consistently been queens of the Caribbean and when Trinidad and Tobago came knocking, they proved their quality with a devastating 89-26 victory. New Zealand were next. While New Zealand were not the same powerhouses they were when they won the Netball World Cup in 2019, they were certainly expected to still have more quality than the Caribbean queens.
They didn’t.
And later on, the Sunshine Girls, who beat them 59-48 in that first meeting, would deliver an even heavier blow to the title contenders.
In the semi-finals, the Jamaicans faced Australia, who had strangely failed to get the better of England and finished the group stage in second place.
Fate is cruel and the Australians dealt the title-chasing Jamaicans a devastating blow, a 54-57 loss, ensuring their gold medal charge came to an end.
The Jamaicans, now with one shot of getting back on the podium after 16 years in the wilderness, again faced New Zealand, who had never been off it.
There’s a first time for everything, and while the Sunshine Girls didn’t deliver the big defeat they did in their first encounter, the 52-45 result served as a statement, Jamaica’s netball is back!!!
The team, captained by Jhaniele Fowler (now Jhaniele FowlerNembhard), and completed by the returning Romelda Aiken-George, Shamera Sterling, Khadijah Williams, Shanice Beckford, Nichole DixonRochester, Kadie-Ann Dehaney, Rebekah Robinson, Adean Ward, Jodi-Ann Ward, Latanya Wilson, and Crystal Plummer, did the country proud.
That was also to be last time Jamaica would be coached by veteran Connie Francis and proved a fitting way for her to call time on her outstanding career as the Sunshine Boss.
The team, arguably the best line-up of players in the country’s history, had threatened the status quo of world netball earlier when they finished second at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.