It is being claimed that the Sri Lanka team has picked up many positives and is an improved side despite finishing 15th out of 16 in the recently concluded Netball World Cup played in Liverpool, England.
They are said to have played better with understanding and cohesion and maintained stiff competition against all opponents.
They even managed to beat Singapore twice with big margins compared to the last Asian Championship. Though losing most of their matches the margin of defeat was much less than expected. And the force behind their improvement is said to be coach Thilaka Jinadasa who claims that the structure for netball should be improved and the players should practice continuously in preparation for the next World Cup in 2023 with better facilities.
“The players’ recovery process, nutrition and physical fitness should be monitored with the application of advanced scientific methods.. These are the important areas to look for during preparation period,” said Jinadasa.
“We had a chance to finish as Asian Champions and played against higher ranked opponents. I think we can go forward to improve on our ranking with this set up. We had a good chance to play against the world number one team in Australia and we managed to get 25 points that gave us more exposure.”
At the previous World Cup in Sydney Sri Lanka lost all their matches by huge margins and Jinadasa said that Sri Lanka should have a pool of 30 players and train continuously to improve on their performances in the future. The six foot ten inches tall Tharjani Shivalingam was outstanding and most successful in scoring 348 goals to become the highest scorer at the World Cup.
“We also need to learn on how to play against tall players in strong teams. So we must try to play a few series against such teams to gain more experience before the next World Cup,” said Jinadasa.