Commonwealth Games: Uganda set for tough netball draw

Commonwealth Games 2018

Today: Netball draw

Venue: Gold Coast

Seeded teams: Australia, New Zealand, England, Jamaica, South Africa, Malawi

Unseeded teams: Fiji, Wales, Uganda, Northern Ireland, Barbados, Scotland 

The She Cranes could end up in the same group with Australia, New Zealand, England or even Jamaica when the Commonwealth Games netball draw is made Wednesday in Gold Coast, Queensland. 

Going into the draw, She Cranes manager Jocelyn Ucanda was cocky and pointed out that other competing nations probably had more to fear about Uganda than the other way round.

"It is a plus for the She Cranes even if we are grouped with countries like Australia or England. We want to be where they are so it works well for us if we play them.

"All the 12 teams in the Commonwealth Games are good including Uganda. Those teams are also worried about playing Uganda, we are not in the Commonwealth Games by accident and we have worked our way to be among the top netball teams in the world," Ucanda said.

The six seeded teams will be kept apart in the draw and they can only meet after the group matches.

Last month Uganda rose to 9th from 13th in the world netball rankings after winning the Africa Netball Championships in Kampala last June. The She Cranes rise in the rankings came with a Commonwealth Games slot where the 12 top-ranked netball nations in the world qualify for the games.

She Cranes are hoping to build on their successful Netball World Cup adventure in Sydney, two years ago, where Uganda finished 8th overall.

Prior to that Uganda's last appearance at the Netball World Cup had been in 1979.

The GC2018 netball competition opens with preliminary matches at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre from April 5-12.

This will culminate into the penultimate and final matches at the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, April 14-15.