Rachael King

The eyes of the net­ball world are turned to­wards the Cook Is­lands, with the World Youth Net­ball Cham­pi­onships (WYNC) start­ing to­day in Raro­ton­ga. T&T ar­rived in the Cook Is­lands, known as the best kept se­cret par­adise in the Pa­cif­ic Ocean, on Fri­day.

But re­lax­ation will not be on their minds as the ju­nior "Ca­lyp­so Girls" get ready to take on tough com­pe­ti­tion in their Pool A group, open­ing to­mor­row against North­ern Ire­land. The oth­er teams in their group are the de­fend­ing cham­pi­on New Zealand, Bar­ba­dos and Scot­land. The oth­er groups are Pool B com­pris­ing Aus­tralia, host Cook Is­lands, Malaysia, Wales and Van­u­atu. Pool C in­cludes Eng­land, Fi­ji, Botswana, Samoa and South Africa, while Pool D con­sists of Caribbean cham­pi­on Ja­maica, Papua New Guinea, Malawi and the Unit­ed States.

In the last edi­tion of the world event in 2005 held in Flori­da, USA, T&T placed eighth. In that year, Eng­land fin­ished sec­ond and Aus­tralia took the bronze. The world ju­nior event be­gan in 1988 and host Aus­tralia was crowned the cham­pi­on. New Zealand won in 1992, Fi­ji and Aus­tralia again in 1996 and 2000. Both edi­tions were played in Cana­da.