KEY POINTS:
Veteran Elaine Davis hopes her team can defy the odds and she can go out a winner when Jamaica contest the Netball World Championships starting in Auckland on Saturday.
Davis, a fixture in the Jamaican shooting circle for nearly 100 tests, will retire after her fourth World Cup.
She was confident her No 3 ranked side can turn around poor form of the last 18 months and be well in the hunt at the business end of the tournament late next week.
The Sunshine Girlz were beaten by England for bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Earlier this year they suffered 2-0 away series defeats Australia and New Zealand while they were beaten 3-0 by No 4-ranked England in their last competitive series in September, at home.
"If we are consistent and build on the spurts and some of the brilliance that we had in the series against England, then we should be able to give a good account of ourselves at this World Championships," Davis told The Jamaica Gleaner.
Davis, who has so far undergone five knee surgeries, said she would hold nothing back.
"This will also be my last championships, so I have prepared myself to go there and give 100 per cent for my country," she said.
"I have been playing netball all my life. I have been playing at the club level and I have also played in a number of Caribbean tournaments and at the World Championships, so I think now is the right time to walk away."
Coach Connie Francis has the services of six players back from the team who finished third when Jamaica hosted the tournament in 2003.
They are Davis, Nadine Bryan, Sharon Wiles, Simone Forbes Byfield, Nichala Gibson and Kasey Evering.
However, missing from the 2003 team will be experienced defenders Georgia Gordon and Oberon Pitterson, who have retired.
Sharp shooter Carla Williams has decided not to return to the national setup, with her place taken by 16-year-old Christina Solmon.
"I think Christina is a very talented player. Certainly she is still very young but she has shown a lot of maturity. She has shown that she loves the game and is committed to our programme," Francis said.
"She has also gotten a lot of criticism but she still survived and continued to work hard on her game."
Solmon joins Janet Johnson as the youngest player to represent the country at the tournament.
Francis said her team were motivated by the low expectations surrounding their prospects.
Jamaica have been drawn in group C and will play alongside Fiji, Singapore and the Cook Islands, with a top-two finish needed to advance to the quarterfinals.
- NZPA