T&T’s “Ca­lyp­so Girls,” led by cap­tain Rhon­da John-Davis, will be ea­ger for a win­ning start when they come up against South Africa in their Pool C open­er in the 16-team Vi­tal­i­ty Net­ball World Cup at the M&S Bank Are­na, Liv­er­pool, Eng­land, from 12.30 pm Friday.

Net­ball is this coun­try’s most suc­cess­ful in­ter­na­tion­al team sport and T&T has a long his­to­ry of ap­pear­ances at the World Cup, hav­ing played at 13 of the 14 tour­na­ments to date. T&T is al­so the on­ly oth­er na­tion be­sides Aus­tralia and New Zealand to be crowned World Net­ball Cham­pi­ons, hav­ing tied for first place with New Zealand and Aus­tralia in 1979.

On a per­son­al note, John-Davis will set a world record for the num­ber of World Cup ap­pear­ances when she steps on the court in Liv­er­pool. The wing-at­tack has played at five World Cups to date – 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015, mak­ing Liv­er­pool her sixth.

In ad­di­tion to John-Davis, Aus­tralian-based Saman­tha Wal­lace, Eng­land-based Eng­land Kali­fa Mc Collin, Or­nel­la Jack-Hill, Can­dice Guerero and Daystar Swift are mem­bers of the team, which is ranked tenth, with pre­vi­ous World Cup ex­pe­ri­ence and they will be ex­pect­ed to car­ry most of the work­load by coach by coach Wes­ley “Pepe” Gomes.

How­ev­er, Gomes, who will be seek­ing to lead T&T to its first podi­um fin­ish since a joint sec­ond-spot with Aus­tralia in Glas­gow in 1987, will be a bit con­cerned by his team’s lack­lus­tre dis­plays in its three warm-up match­es dur­ing the just con­clud­ed Wales Sum­mer Test Se­ries in Cardiff. Dur­ing the se­ries, T&T drew with eighth-ranked North­ern Ire­land 49-all; went un­der to the 12th-ranked Wales 72-64 and lost to Malawi 53-52.

The South African unit, on the oth­er hand, fea­tur­ing no few­er than six Aus­tralian-based play­ers, stormed to two re­sound­ing wins over Wales 84-32 and 79-44. Mak­ing its eighth World Cup ap­pear­ance over­all, with a best fin­ish of sec­ond place be­hind Aus­tralia in 1995, South Africa qual­i­fied au­to­mat­i­cal­ly for this year’s event as one of the top five teams in the world.

They are led by wing-at­tack Bongi­we Pret­ty Mso­mi, who will be play­ing in her third World Cup, while their star play­er is goal-at­tack Lenize Pot­gi­eter.

It will not get any eas­i­er for the “Ca­lyp­so Girls” as the World Cup pro­gress­es ei­ther, as they will next face sec­ond-ranked Ja­maica on Sat­ur­day be­fore meet­ing 17th-ranked Fi­ji on Sun­day.

Four years ago, T&T fin­ished third in Pool A with one soli­tary vic­to­ry over Bar­ba­dos and end­ed up fin­ish­ing ninth over­all in Syd­ney.

Group A com­pris­es win­ners of the last three edi­tions and 11-time cham­pi­on Aus­tralia, North­ern Ire­land (No 8), Zim­bab­we (No 13) and Sri Lan­ka (No 18); Group B fea­tures four-time win­ners New Zealand (No 4), Malawi (No 9), Bar­ba­dos (No 11) and Sin­ga­pore (No 26) and Group D con­sists of reign­ing Com­mon­wealth Games cham­pi­on and world num­ber three Eng­land, Ugan­da (No 6), Scot­land (No 7) and Samoa (No 14).

At the end of the round-robin stage, the top three teams in each group will ad­vance to the sec­ond pre­lim­i­nary round. The top three teams from Groups A and B will form Group F while the top three teams in C and D will com­prise Group G.

Teams:

T&T: Aniecia Bap­tiste, Can­dice Guerero, Daystar Swift, Jameela Mc Carthy, Kali­fa Mc Collin, Onel­la Jack Hill, Saman­tha Wal­lace, Shantel Seemu­n­gal, Shaquan­da Greene, Sh­er­nice Seemu­n­gal, Tahi­rah Hollingsworth, Rhon­da John-Davis (cap­tain).

South Africa: Bongi­we Pret­ty Mso­mi, Erin Burg­er, Ine-Marie Ven­ter, Izette Griesel, Kar­la Pre­to­rius, Khany­isa Chawane, Lenize Pot­gi­eter, Mary­ka Holtzhausen, Phumza Char­maine Maweni, Renske Stoltz, Sha­dine Van Der Mer­we, Zanele Vuy­iswa.

Fri­day's match­es

Venue: M&S Bank Are­na, Liv­er­pool, Eng­land

Aus­tralia v North­ern Ire­land, 6 am

Zim­bab­we v Sri Lan­ka, 6.25 am

Ja­maica v Fi­ji, 12 noon

South Africa v T&T, 12.25 pm

Eng­land vs Ugan­da, 2 pm

Scot­land vs Samoa, 2.25 pm