Tuesday 23 April 2019 15:06, UK
England's Vitality Roses securing the world title in Liverpool would be the "perfect finish to a perfect 18 months", says Joanna Adams, chief executive of England Netball.
Head coach Tracey Neville and her squad are arriving at the forthcoming Netball World Cup ranked second in the world and are driving on from the gold-medal winning platform that they created on the Gold Coast.
The team's quest to finish the tournament on top of the world commences on July 12, every match of the competition will be live on Sky Sports, and initially England will face Uganda, Scotland and Samoa.
"It would be incredible to do a back-to-back Commonwealth Games gold and a Netball World Cup gold. It would just be a perfect finish to a perfect 18 months," said CEO, Adams to Sky Sports on Sportswomen.
"Winning that Commonwealth Games gold, it just made our sport something different in this country. More people are so aware of netball and that's really what it's all about.
"It has indeed [given England a platform for World Cup] and it's sparked interested from so many more talented athletes as well. So, for the first time ever going into a World Cup it's going to be really difficult to select those 12 girls that finally make it there."
The competition will take place from July 12-21 at the M&S Bank Arena with 58 matches being played over the course of 10 days.
The vision for the tournament is to "create the best ever female world cup" and already a unique agreement has been signed with the organisers of the Rugby League World Cup 2021 to cooperate and share knowledge on a regular basis. With a little over two months to go, everything is driving forwards at pace.
"It was six years ago when we went over to New Zealand to actually bid for this World Cup and the preparations are going fantastically well," said the Chief Executive.
"The biggest worry is the commercial side of it, you need to sell tickets, and that Commonwealth Games gold medal meant that tickets absolutely flew out.
"It took a lot of pressure off us as a governing body and now it's about making sure that the fans have a fantastic experience and the players attend the best World Cup that they can possibly attend."
Already 90,000 tickets have been sold to watch the 16 teams compete on the greatest stage of all. Adams is "hopeful" for a sellout over the 10 days and a strong schools programme is in place to ensure that young players are able to see netball at an international level.
"We want more people to watch it than ever before, we want the players to have the best experience, and we'll judge that, and we want our fan experience to be sensational," added Adams.
"Then really, it's the legacy piece. We want to make sure that off the back of this, we inspire more women and girls, hopefully to play netball, but really just to continue their journey in sport."
Adams has been with England Netball since 2012. First, as the body's commercial and marketing director and, since late January 2015, in role as their chief executive. Over that period of time she has seen the sport develop significantly at grassroots and at the elite level.
"In both areas the game has grown hugely. 130,000 women either played more or came back to the sport after the Commonwealth Games gold so we've got the most participation that has ever happened," noted Adams.
"Our numbers will break all records this year when announced which is great. There are more young girls that want to be elite athletes which is perfect and the finances behind the sport now are safe which really, that is my responsibility.
"It's my responsibility to help participation grow, to help the elite side grow and to help the make sure that it's funded so it's changed a lot in nine years."
For now, Adams is focused on the present and ensuring that all elements are ready for this summer's pinnacle competition. Only time will tell if the Vitality Roses can produce the "perfect finish to a perfect 18 months" and if they do then it will go down in English sporting history.
Watch every match of the Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 live on Sky Sports. Coverage starts on Friday, July 12 plus keep up to date with all of the latest competition news, results and enjoy in-depth features at SkySports.com/netball
