The venue for the first Test in the three-Test Spar Netball Challenge series on Wednesday has been changed from the Standard Bank Arena to the Walter Sisulu Hall at the Randburg Recreation Centre.
Red tape has thrown arrangements for first Test between South Africa and England into chaos when the sprung floor, which was purchased from Australia, was impounded in Cape Town. The floor was used by Netball USA, for the Under-21 World Championships in Miami earlier this year, and Netball USA apparently failed to pay the freight charges.
Netball South Africa vice-president Helene Botha said on Tuesday that the coaches of both teams were adamant that the match should go ahead. The floor at the original venue was rejected as unsuitable.
”We in South Africa still don’t have the sprung wooden floors needed for international netball,” she explained. ”That was why we bought two second-hand floors from Australia. The government has been helping us to try to overcome the problem with the floor being impounded in Cape Town, but so far we have been unsuccessful.”
The England coach, Marg Caldow, said that while her players are used to playing on sprung floors, they are determined that the first Test should go ahead as planned.
”These are international players, and as such, need to be able to play in all kinds of situations,” she said. ”They need to be flexible, but our main concern is the safety of the players. We certainly don’t want any injuries at this stage, ahead of an important Test series against Jamaica, as well as the Commonwealth Games.”
Caldow said the team played a practice match at St Mary’s School in Pretoria, and suffered no ill effects from playing on a harder surface.
The South African coach, Marlene Wagner, said her team are more used to playing on hard surfaces, and sometimes find it difficult to adjust to the faster conditions on a sprung floor.
”When we were in Australia earlier this year, the players were quite often blown up for foot faults because of the speed of the game,” she said.
Wagner said she looks forward to the time when South Africa has indoor netball facilities on which they can be proud to invite international teams to play.
The second Test is scheduled to be played in at the Bellville Velodrome in Cape Town on Saturday, and the third at Port Elizabeth University the following Wednesday. — Sapa