The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) is hosting the 4th ECCB International Netball Series in Saint Lucia. The associate partners are St. Lucia National Netball Association and the Caribbean Netball Association. The series started from the 21st of September and will continue till the 30th of September at the Beausejour Indoor Facility.
On the day of opening, the national team St. Lucia played against Montserrat and won the match with 66 shots and Montserrat had only 9 shots. The Cayman Islands triumphed over Anguilla (90-14), and St Vincent & the Grenadines snatched the game from the Commonwealth of Dominica (71-32). There was a close match between Antigua & Barbuda and Grenada. However, Antigua & Barbuda won the game (39-37).
Day two of the netball action was played on the 22nd of September, Sunday. The home team Saint Lucia won the game against Antigua and Barbuda (55-38). Along with the home team, the scores of other teams are also released. Grenada won against the Cayman Island (47-35), and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines won against Anguilla (87-8). The Commonwealth of Dominica thrashed Montserrat with 58 shots while Montserrat only had 16 shots in total.
Despite the continuous victory, Team Saint Lucia captain, Safiya Paul stated to St. Lucia Times that the team had the chance to experiment different lineups and positions. This will help the team to win future games. Saint Lucia has seen to dominate the past matches and the players are expecting to play good games in future also.
The team captain added, “We were able to try a few combinations to see what works and what doesn’t work, so definitely the ones that don’t work, we’re definitely not going to do them in the coming matches, because they won’t match up to the teams that we have coming up.”
The ECCB International Netball Series has a total of seven participating teams. While the Cayman Islands team joined as the guest team to improve their netball rank, other teams include Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, Commonwealth of Dominica, Montserrat, Granada, St. Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The ECCB’s partnership with the St. Lucia National Netball Association and the Caribbean Netball Association for the game shows the Bank’s commitment towards the improvement of women’s sports of the region. The President of the Caribbean Netball Association (CNA), Rufina Paul, stated that, “The Caribbean Netball Association is elated and thankful for ECCB’s sponsorship which made it possible for seven of its member countries to compete in this World Netball approved event.”
