Laura Langman (NZ), Laura Geitz (Australia), Romelda Aiken (Jamaica) and Stacey Francis (England) at the launch of the Netball World Cup. Source: Toby Zerna / News Limited
SYDNEY will be sport central in 2015, with a world netball championship to be played in front of world record crowds completing a trifecta of major events to be hosted by the Olympic city in 2015.
Sydney will host Asian Cup games, which include the decider at Stadium Australia, and ICC Cricket World Cup matches in February/March with the world netball championships to be played from August 7-16.
These three international showcase events will be complemented by regular Sydney sporting events such as State of Origin rugby league, the Golden Slipper, the annual ANZAC DAY test between the Dragons and Roosters and the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day.
Yesterday tournament officials confirmed netball fans will be delivered more games and better quality matches than ever before at a world championship event.
The tournament, where Australian and New Zealand will clash early in the tournament instead of just in the decider thanks to a format revamp, will also be played at the biggest stadium in the championships history with Allphones Arena at Sydney Olympic Park able to host around 17,000 fans.
"They will be world record crowd I am certain,'' said Netball Australia boss Kate Palmer who helped formulate the new format which will pit top teams against each other in both the rounds and the finals series for the first time.
Michelle den Dekker, the last captain to lead an Australian team to victory at home, said the win back in 1991 remains a highlight of her career.
"I can still remember the noise from our final. You seriously couldn't hear a thing,'' said den Dekker of Australia's one-goal win over New Zealand at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
When den Dekker was in charge she and her teammates earned around $8.40 a day as top netballers, lived in a Sydney university dormitory, ate meals in a cafeteria and functioned without a team doctor, nutritionist or psychologist.
When de Dekker, now the Australian assistant coach, is next involved in a home challenge in 2015 players and team staff will stay in a five-star hotel, have access to the best technical and medical resources available to elite athletes and be watched by a record crowd of around 17,000.
And while things have changed for the better in terms of funding, backing and general support for netball since the last event in 1991, den Dekker is still hoping for the same result as Australia achieved _ a cliffhanger win by the hosts.
"That game, the final, sort of started those great, one goal battles that have been going on ever since,'' den Dekker said of a match which helped change the perception of netball as a "girlie" sport to that of a tough, physical contest between highly skilled athletes..
"It was an event that really changed the way people looked at us. We went from women who played a game in a park in the eyes of people, to real athletes who people recognised.''
Current Australian coach Laura Gietz, just six when the famous final between the two powers of netball was played in Sydney, doesn't remember then Prime Minister Bob Hawke pumping the air in triumph or embracing Australian players after the win.
"I was six. I don't remember it at all, sorry,'' she laughed.
"But I do know how special it is to play at home and I can't wait.''
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