Twelve teams in battle for netball supremacy

Twelve top female teams and four mixed teams will battle for the Sri Lankasports.com -Netball Challenge Cup 2009 which gets under way on December 19, at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium organized by the SportsLine Marketing (Pvt) Limited for the 4th consecutive year.

Sri Lankasports.com the organizers have decided to introduce ' The power Play' for the first time in the history netball. In the pool/quarters, semis and final matches each team will elect one quarter as

"Power Play". The points scored during this quarter will be doubled. This year the other new attraction is the mixed category which will add more excitement.

The women teams will play in four groups while and mixed teams have been drawn in to two groups. The first category will see the awards presented to four top teams but in the mixed event only winner and runner-up will receive awards.

The organizers have received the blessings from the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka and the Mercantile Netball Association. The technical assistance will be provided by the Academy of Netball Kotte, while former Director of National Institute of Sports Science, Yogananda Wijesundara will be the tournament referee for the event.

Seylan Bank are the holds the title for the last two years. They beat Commercial Bank 35 goals to 10 at the finals of the Cup Championship.

Meanwhile the Plate Championship was won by Ceylinco Group beating David Peiris Motor Company in an evenly contested game 24 goals to 19.

Participating team women:

Group A: Seylan Bank,Ceylon Biscuits, Nations Trust Bank

Group B: Sampath Bank, HSBC, Asiri Hospitals

Group C: Standard Chartered Bank, Commercial Bank, Pan Asia Bank

Group D: Janashakthi Insurance, Mobitel, Hatton National Bank

Mixed events:

Group A: Sampath Bank, Star Garments

Group B: Airtel, Nations Trust Bank