Sky Sports is the only place to watch all 10 days of the Vitality Netball World Cup; live coverage gets underway on July 12 and continues through to the final on July 21
Friday 28 June 2019 18:15, UK
Lisa Alexander has announced the Australian Diamonds squad that will try and defend their Netball World Cup title in Liverpool.
The 12-strong squad, which will next meet in Sydney on June 24 for a five-day training camp, does not include prior vice-captain Gabi Simpson or mid-courter Kim Ravaillion.
Caitlin Bassett will remain as the defending champions' team captain for the competition and will be supported by Liz Watson, who takes over Simpson's role as vice-captain.
Simpson, a player with 40 Tests worth of experience, has been carrying a lingering groin injury recently and was unable to play in the whole of January's Quad Series also due to injury.
Ravaillion, who was was part of Australia's winning-squad at the 2015 Netball World Cup, has not been able to work her way back into the international side after withdrawing last year due to exhaustion.
There are three squad members that have been to a World Cup competition before - Bassett, Caitlin Thwaites and Paige Hadley - while the whole squad has 338 caps in total.
"We couldn't be more thrilled with the final team that has been selected to compete in Liverpool, but it's been a difficult process due to the depth and talent and experience in our Diamonds squad," said head coach Alexander after announcing her 12-player squad.
"However, it's our job to select the team that will successfully compete on the international stage, with consideration for the back-to-back nature and varying games styles within a tournament.
"Some athletes are very unfortunate to miss out on being selected, they've done all the right things and we have had some very tough decisions to make. We really feel for those athletes."
In the coming weeks, four athletes will be named as training partners and they will attend the training camps that will be taking place in Sydney and Manchester in the build-up to July's Netball World Cup.
Australia commence the defence of their title on the opening day against Northern Ireland in Group A before meeting Zimbabwe and then Sri Lanka.
Watch every match of the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup 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
