KEY POINTS:
Why are we asking this now?
The 2007 World Netball Championships start on Saturday and finish the following Saturday, at the Trusts Stadium in Waitakere City, Auckland.
What are they all about?
The championship is a quadrennial international netball world championship co-ordinated by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA).
The event is made up of 48 games in eight days, which include pool games, quarter-finals, semifinals and the final on Saturday, November 17.
Each team will be awarded a rank from one to 16.
Who is involved?
The 16 teams competing are: the New Zealand Silver Ferns, Australia, Barbados, Botswana, the Cook Islands, England, Fiji, Jamaica, Malawi, Malaysia, Samoa, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Wales.
About 30,000 visitors are expected over the eight days to watch the games.
Who is expected to win?
If history is a guide, Australia and New Zealand will contest the final.
Since its inception the competition has been dominated by the two teams, with the Wallabies winning seven and the Silver Ferns winning three.
The tradition of fierce transtasman rivalry started in the competition's first tournament with Australia beating New Zealand by just one point. The final score was 37-36.
What controversy surrounds it?
Fiji was scheduled to host the 2007 competition but were stripped of the right following the December 2006 military coup, when Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama unseated Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.
Hosting rights were subsequently awarded to New Zealand, and the competition date moved from July to November 2007.
Two Fijian netballers with family ties to the military have withdrawn their visa applications and will not be playing in the championships.
What is its history?
The tournament was initiated by the International Federation of Women's Basketball and Netball Associations (now IFNA), and established at a conference in 1960 hosted by the All England Netball Association (AENA).
The first championships were held at the Chelsea College of Physical Education in Eastbourne, England, in August 1963, when 11 teams played in a round-robin over 13 days.
