SIX overseas-based players have joined the Pearls extended squad as Netball Fiji officials work on putting a team together for the 2023 Netball World Cup which be held in Cape Town, South Africa in July.
Netball Fiji chief executive officer Vivian Koster confirmed the players, who are mostly from Australia and New Zealand, attended their training session last Saturday with other members of the squad.
She said they were expecting more players to arrive over the coming weeks.
“The players have already started training together with our overseas-based players who have just arrived in the country,” Koster said.
She said they wanted to bring in overseas-based players as quickly as possible so that they could “jell well” with the local players.
“Right now they’re doing a bit of team bonding so they can get to know each other better.”
She says throughout this week, the Pearls will have team bonding activities.
“You may have seen on Facebook the girls having their two-and-half hour run in Naitasiri. What we’re trying to do is to get the girls to know each other more so that they will build a good level of trust.”
Netball Fiji had put out an expression of interest last month for eligible players in elite competitions in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom tryout for the Fiji Pearls.
According to World Netball regulations, participating countries are to name a preliminary squad by the end of April before their final squad is named later in the year.
