Netball giants launch four-nation Test series
The Proteas will be joining New Zealand, Australia and England to play in a new international netball competition.
Four of international netball’s strongest nations; South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia, have joined forces in a ground-breaking partnership, to be known as Sanzea.
Sanzea will see the four compete in a new international netball competition.
The importance of regular international fixtures outside of the Netball World Cup and Commonwealth Games years is recognised by the participating nations, who are united in their goal of developing a high profile and regular international competition.
New Zealand and Australia will host the inaugural event in late 2016, with the competition moving to South Africa and England. A review will be undertaken after the initial two years, which may lead to further opportunities for the competition to grow, including the addition of other nations.
The International Netball Federation (INF) has pledged its support for the new partnership. The competition format, including dates and venues, will be released soon.
Having already established the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League for domestic competition and the Diamond Challenge for African nations, Netball SA CEO Blanche de la Guerre says she is very excited about the new competition and the opportunities it opens on the international stage.
“We have been working on the idea and plans for the past two years, and we are now ready and very excited to offer our SPAR Proteas squad a brand new competition,” she said.
New Zealand CEO Hilary Poole said the competition would set world netball on a new path to growth. “This partnership has the potential to change the face of international netball and is another big step towards building the depth of the game globally.”
South Africa was somewhat isolated in the past few years and only competed against Australia and New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games and World Cup events.
De la Guerre said: “This, for us, is a significant opportunity to host the three big nations of the world in South Africa. We have enough time to prepare our team, and we at Netball SA will make sure that our players are ready to match the quality when going on court. We will bring some of these games to Durban in preparation for the Durban 2022 Commonwealth Games – I believe we can all be excited about the positive impact this new partnership will bring.”
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
