Uganda and defending champions South Africa in interesting pools

World University Netball Championship in Kampala

Dates: September 17-21, 2018

Venue: Makerere University
 
The 2018 World University Netball Championship has drawn up interesting battles among some of the highly rated netball playing countries in the World.
 
According to the draws that were conducted on Monday at the headquarters of international university sports, based on the University of Lausanne, the hosts were placed in a potentially explosive Pool A that also has USA, Singapore and rivals Kenya.
 
Defending champions South Africa are favourites of winning Pool B  that also has Namibia, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.The top two teams in each group will progress to the semi-finals, while the bottom two will head into the playoffs.
 
A breakdown of each team:
 
Uganda
(International ranking): 7th
There will be immense interest in how Team Uganda will perform at the championship considering the country’s recent performances in international netball in recent months.The hosts will be motivated by Uganda She Cranes’ performance at the CommonWealth Games and Africa Netball Championship  in Australia and Zambia respectively. Uganda bowed out of the 2018 Commonwealth Games with an inspiring sixth place finish in Gold coast.

USA
(International ranking): Not ranked
In 2012, Netball America (NA) President Sonya Ottoway said NA struggled to put together a team, and had to travel far and wide to find eligible players to play in the inaugural World University Netball Championships (WUNC) in Cape Town. But over the years, the team has come of age. NA worked out a contract with Miami Dade County education authority in Florida to start netball programmes in the 350 elementary and high schools in the county. They also launched netball programmes in more than 400 community sports centres run by the New York City Housing Authority. This helped NA assemble competent teams at all levels for international engagements.

Singapore
(International ranking): 21st
Singapore has several national squads: Opens, 21 & Under, 19 & Under (Post School), 19 & Under (Schools), 17 & Under, and 14 & Under. The national team competed in its first major tournament in 1967 at the Netball World Championships. Singapore had a national team compete in the fifth Asian Netball Championships held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2001. Singapore competed in the 7th Asian Youth Netball Championship held in 2010 in India. As of June 30 2018, the women’s national team was ranked number seventeenth in the world.
 
Kenya
(International ranking): Not ranked
In Kenya, netball is primarily played by women and primarily played in rural areas. A school sought to build four netball courts at their school in 1950. Some girls played netball after school during the 1980s. Netball programs were being run by schools in the late 1990s though there were few opportunities for adult players after they completed school. The Kenyan national team has just resumed playing international netball after several years in the wilderness.
 
 Pool B
 South Africa
(International ranking): 5th
In 2016, South Africa’s varsity players established themselves as the best in the world when they returned from the World University Netball Championships in Miami, United States, with the gold medal. In a triumph described by NMMU sports official Melinda Goosen as the best feeling she had experienced, the SA team defeated Jamaica 43-39 in a tense final. South Africa remain favourites of winning the championship in Kampala.
 
 Namibia
(International ranking): 28th
In 2017, newly appointed senior national netball team coach, Manuel ‘Mansie’ Tjivera, says that he is confident that Namibia can regain its former glory after the country fell out of the world rankings due to lack of participation in recent international competitions. Namibia was considered a formidable force in the world in the 90s, but has since fallen behind in the pecking order, slipping below countries such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Swaziland, who were once the whipping women of netball years ago.
Its university team could contribute to the country’s ranking.

Zimbabwe
(International ranking): 13th
During the Africa Netball Championship in Zambia, Zimbabwe qualified for their first ever Netball World Cup, qualifying alongside Uganda.
There will be a lot expected from its university team in Kampala.
 
Sri Lanka
(International ranking): 26th
Netball was first played in Sri Lanka in 1921. The first game was played by Ceylon Girl Guide Company at Kandy High School. By 1952, Sri Lankan clubs were playing Indian club sides. In 1956, Sri Lanka played its first international match against Australia’s national team in Sri Lanka. In 1972, the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka was created. In 1983, Netball Federation of Sri Lanka was dissolved by the government. But since the federation was reinstalled, Sri Lanka have made reasonable progress in the Asian Netball Championship.