Netball is a very popular sport in many commonwealth nations. It is played by two teams having seven players each. It is mainly played by women. The history of netball is followed to the early development of basketball. So, netball is considered as a game modified for women which gave rise to women\’s basketball. It is played on a rectangular court with raised goal rings at each end. Each team tries to score goals within a defined area by throwing a ball into a ring attached to a high post.
History of netball in the University of Sri Jayewardanepura takes us back to 1980, where the first SLUG (Sri Lanka University Games) commenced. Through many years of hardwork and dedication, the team became the champions under the guidance of the current coach, Mrs. Hyacinth Nilangi Wijesinghe. She is a former national netball coach and also the current president of the Sri Lanka Netball Coaches\’ Association. She is also the advisor of Coaches\’ Development Committee and a high performance manager of the Sri Lanka Netball Federation.For the current team, Mrs. Ramani Mallika Kulathilake acts as the team instructor and the team is led by the captain, Sanduni Welikala and the vice captain, Nilumi Hapuarachchi.
With alot of effort and dedication, the team became champions for the first time after a decade since 2014 in the Inter-University Games. Following that victory, they became champions in 2015 Inter-University Games twice and also in the Sri Lanka University Games 2016. In 2016 and 2017, the team was entitled to the victory cup as champions in Pera Mixed Netball Championship. Once again in 2017 and 2018, the team crowned mother USJ as the champions in Inter-University Games. Recently they won 2nd runner-up in Sri Lanka University Games in 2019.
As a result of the true colours shown by our team players, Anjalee Peramunugama. Anjali Biyanwila, Janathri Hiranya and Thushara Jayasekara were invited to represent Sri Lanka University Netball Team in 2017. Following that Sonali Nanayakkara, Maneesha Ranasinghe, Janathri Hiranya and Thushara Jayasekara represented the World University Netball Championship in 2018 which was held in Kampala, Uganda. Also the current vice captain, Nilumi Hapuarachchi represented the 10th Asian Youth Netball Championship in 2017 which was held in Korea and she also represented the Junior Netball World Cup in 2017. All of these achievements have made us proud and we are also glad to have SLUSA colour holders in our team.
With immense dedication of the team, our players have taken the name of mother J\’pura to international platforms as well . According to the achievements of our netball team it is proven that, \”It is not the team with the best players that win. It\’s the players with the best team that wins!!!.\” We, the Flames family, wish success to all our netball players in their future endeavors.
Written by: Tharushika Prabathi
Graphic Designed by : Jithmi Rajapaksha