Blackman wants incentives, concentrated camps, employer sensitivity

By Kimberley Cummins

Barbados will need to look beyond the use of spare time netballers if the country truly expects to compete and win against some of the best in the world.

“Part-time netballers will not take us to the level we want to get,” says co-captain of the Bajan Gems, Latonia Blackman.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Blackman said that as it obtains currently, the Bajan girls who gave of their best each time they hit the court at the recently
concluded Commonwealth Games, are hampered by the part-time nature of their sport on the island. Moreover, this is why
Blackman, who maintains that Barbadian players have the natural talent to take them to a professional level, is of the opinion that such talent is still not enough to carry them over the threshold when they reach the international stage.

It is for this reason the sportswoman hopes authorities would consider introducing incentives for the girls. Her main suggestion was training camps in the lead-up to international meets. Blackman argued that such could be used as a critical tool to evaluate the needs and areas of improvement for new and returning players, provide intensive training, focus and as a mechanism to gel the team.

“When some of these bigger countries have series going on, their team is together, they don’t have to work or anything. They go in a camp for three or four months. The players would then be selected out of that to represent their country . . . So, they would have like three-four months being together as a team and preparing for their series. But for [us] we have to go to work, go home, some have to deal with their children and husbands, then to get to practice,” she said.

Blackman continued: “Being together as a team for a period of three months and everything would be focused on netball. We go to the gym together, go and do your beach work together, you do everything together for those three months. If a player gets hurt, you wouldn’t now have to change your whole system, everybody would already know what has to be done and I think that would help lift netball in Barbados.”

For this camp to work, Blackman implored the buy-in of employers, some of whom she charged added to the girls’ trials off the court. She said even at this stage athletes are made to feel as if they have to choose between remaining employed or representing their country.

“Because we had three tours this year, which were [the ECS/ECCB International Netball Series] in Dominica, the Commonwealth Games and then we have World Qualifiers in Jamaica in October, some players had to take vacation for one, some had to go without pay. So, it does be hard, yes, the bosses would have to get involved too,” she lamented

“For other teams that [netball] is their job, they are getting paid to do netball but here we have to go to work. . . We are doing it because we love representing our country. It is an honour and is something that you take to heart. You love representing your country and you may love the game of netball so you will go on just playing. But if we want to get back up there in the top ten, where we can open up avenues for one or two of the players to go overseas and play at a professional level, we need a little incentive [for] the players,” Blackman added.

At the recent Commonwealth Games in England, the Bajan Gems were soundly whipped in all of their match-ups, most embarrassingly against World no.1 Australia (18-95) and World no.4 Jamaica (24-103), who ultimately lost to the Aussies in the final. In spite of the severe thrashing, Blackman commended the performance of the team, especially given the fact that of the 11 teams which competed Barbados was the only one without a single international player. Nonetheless, now ranked 14th in the world, she is optimistic that the island could return to the glory years like those in the 1980s when the Bajan Gems sat at their highest place on the leader board at sixth. Or, she hopes the country can do even better than that.

“In all fairness, the young ladies went out there and gave it their best and we can only grow from here and gain more exposure out there playing against these more advanced teams than Barbados. And we can only work towards getting ourselves back up there, so we can have professionals to climb back up the ladder. But first, we have to get back into the top ten to get players out there to be eligible to play in the super league or down in Australia or even New Zealand. So, we have to now look to see where we’re at and where we have to go so that at least we can get one or two players out there playing in the professional league,” Blackman stressed.