Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Elaine Davis ... national netball captain. - File

The National Indoor Sports Centre will be buzzing with excitement today when Jamaica's Sunshine Girls take on England in game one of their three-Test series starting at 7:00 p.m.

The second game will be played on Wednesday and the third on Thursday.

Both teams are using the series as part of their preparation for this year's World Championships, which will be held in Auckland, New Zealand in November. This will also be the final warm-up matches for both sides.

When the teams last met, England defeated Jamaica 53-52 to take the bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.

The Jamaicans suffered 2-0 defeats to host teams Australia and New Zealand in their last competitive series in July, Down Under. However, in a recent interview with The Gleaner Connie Francis, coach of Jamaica said she is very confident the team will do well.

"Our aim is to win this series. However, most importantly, we want to make sure that we compete well and play well and show that we have the quality players that can win the World Championship," said Francis.

"These players have shown they have the tenacity to do well, and they are very fit. Sharon (Wiles) and Nadine (Bryan) are also two of our most experienced players and we are banking on them to shine whenever they go on to the court," said Francis, who took over the coaching reins earlier this year.

The number three ranked Jamaicans will once again depend heavily on the experience of captain and goal shooter Elaine Davis, Simone Forbes at goal attack and centre Nadine Bryan. The team also includes Paula Thompson and Kerry-Ann Brown who are in the senior squad for the first time.

Very confident

National coach Connie Francis - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Meanwhile Margaret Caldow, coach of England said: "We are very confident, but not too over confident."

Caldow added: "We know that there is still room for improvement and we certainly wouldn't want a peak performance at this time. We have got another six or seven weeks before we go to the world Championships so this series is just part of our fine tuning," said Caldow.

"We have always had good contests against each other and I don't see this one being any different, We have just come off a five-week layoff. We also had a visit to Australia in June and had some practice matches down there."

England have retained nine members from last year's Commonwealth Games' bronze medal team, including captain Amanda Newton and Jade Clarke and Pamela Cookey.

In their last competitive series in May, England stunned world champions New Zealand 50-45 before going down to Australia in the tri-nations fixture at home.