Excitement at fever pitch ahead of Netball World Cup draw in East London

Eastern Cape Netball president Mpumi Javu says excitement is at fever-pitch ahead of the 2023 Netball World Cup draw to be held at the East London International Convention Centre on Wednesday (from 8pm).

The draw will consist of 16 teams who will contest for the 2023 title.

SA (hosts), New Zealand, Jamaica, England and Uganda qualified automatically, while Tonga, Fiji, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Scotland and Wales qualified via five regional tournaments.

The Netball World Cup will be staged at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from July 28 to August 6 2023.

It will be the first time the tournament will be held in Africa. SA was announced as the host of the event by the International Netball Federation (INF) in 2019, months before the staging of the 2019 edition in Liverpool, England

Cape Town’s bid, supported by the SA government and the Western Cape, was selected by the INF ahead of a bid by Auckland, New Zealand.

The INF said the Cape Town bid would “deliver a greater affect on the development of global netball” and cited the pledges by the government to invest heavily in the preparation and development of the sport in the lead-up to the tournament.

“We are excited to be part of the World Cup buildup,” Javu said.

“We thank Netball SA and INF for making Eastern Cape Netball the custodians of the World Cup draw.

“We hope the players from the provincial team make the list to represent SA at the World Cup next year as that would help in terms of the development of netball players in the province,” she said. On Monday, SPAR and Telkom joined hands with World Netball and Netball SA as official premium sponsors of the World Cup.