Senior national women's netball coach Wesley "Pepe" Gomes has confirmed that this country's "Calypso Netballers" will tour England as well as Northern Ireland in May as part of their preparations for the 14th Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia, from August 7�16.
The "Calypso Netballers" will come up against the top two teams in the world, host Australia and New Zealand in Pool A, as well as, Caribbean rivals Barbados in round-robin play in Australia.
And coming off a disappointing seventh place finish at the World Championships in Singapore four years ago, Gomes is leaving no stone unturned as he tries to get the T&T women back among the top teams in the world rankings.
Speaking on Monday, coach Gomes confirmed that the team will play a short series against host England from May 4�10, followed by Netball Europe Open Championship from May 14�17 in Northern Ireland where they will come up against the host, Scotland, Wales, England and fellow guest team South Africa.
With respect to the series against England, Gomes, who led T&T to the American Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) Championship crown in Canada last year to earn a World Championship ticket, said it will be a great challenge for his team.
"Since the AFNA tournament last year, we have not been involved in any international matches and prior to that we faced England and was beaten soundly.
"So this will be a big opportunity for us to see how much we have improved during our training here at home and also what more needs to be done to get back to the level of very competitive against the top teams ahead of the World Championship."
Asked if the final pre-World Championship series away to Jamaica was still on, Gomes said the T&T Netball Association was doing its best, along with the Ministry of Sports and Sport Company of T&T, in terms of getting financial assistance for the team.
He added: "Last month, our president, Dr Patricia Butcher, who is also the president of AFNA along with senior team player Joelisa Cooper and I met with newly-appointed Minister of Sports, at his Abercromby Street office and at the top of the agenda was getting the approval of the TTNA's $2.5 million budget to cover the team's programmes, preparations and participation at the World.
"So far we are happy that Minister Sancho along with the Sport Company of T&T has given the assurance that we will be provided with the funding to attend the England and North Ireland events."
In terms of the team's training to date, Gomes said the sessions are coming along nicely, but he was hopeful of having more practice days during the week.
Pool B of the 2015 Championship features world third and fourth-ranked teams, England and Jamaica as well as Scotland and Samoa, while Malawi, South Africa, Singapore and Sri Lanka comprise Pool C, and the quartet of Fiji, Wales, Uganda and Zambia make up Pool D.
Australia qualified automatically as host along with the next five highest-ranked teams from the 2011 Championship inclusive of New Zealand, England, Jamaica, Malawi and South Africa.
All matches will be played at the 21,000 seat Allphones Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.
Qualification
Preliminary round groups:
Pool A: No 1 Australia, No 2 New Zealand, No 10 Barbados, No 9 T&T
Pool B: No 3 England, No 4 Jamaica, No 12 Scotland, No 14 Samoa
Pool C: No 5 Malawi, No 6 South Africa, No 19 Singapore, No 24 Sri Lanka
Pool D: No 7 Fiji, No 8 Wales, No 13 Uganda, No 18 Zambia
Qualification rounds:
First 8:
Pool E: A-1, B-2, C-1, D-2
Pool F: A-2, B-1, C-2, D-1
NB: Top two teams from each pool qualify to the semifinals while the bottom two qualify to the fifth to eight playoffs.
Second 8:
Pool G: A-3, B-4, C-3, D-4
Pool H: A-4, B-3, C-4, D-3
NB: At the end of the second eight matches, the teams will then face off in the playoff matches for positions ninth to 16th.
Rankings
T&T's placing at World Championships:
Winner's row:
Year: Host Placing
1963: England 4th
1967: Australia 5th
1971: Jamaica 4th
1975: New Zealand 4th
1979: T&T Joint 1st with Aus/NZ
1983: Singapore 3rd
1987: Scotland Joint 2nd
1991: Australia DNP
1995: England 6th
1999: New Zealand 8th
2003: Jamaica 10th
2007: New Zealand 11th
2011: Singapore 7th