KEY POINTS:
While the Silver Ferns squad are something of a United Nations, New Zealanders have also infiltrated several other world netball championship sides.
Irene van Dyk is the most well-known netball nomad. She played 72 tests for South Africa before moving to New Zealand and has since played 79 tests for the Silver Ferns.
Fellow South African Leana de Bruin played 34 tests for the republic before moving to New Zealand, for whom she has now played 26 times.
New Zealand-born Samoan Sheryl Scanlan played for Samoa at the 1999 world champs. She goes into the tournament with 47 Silver Ferns caps.
Three teams are coached by former Silver Ferns: Fiji (Vilimaina Davu), Samoa (Linda Vagana) and the Cook Islands (Ana Noovao).
Samoa and the Cook Islands have even deeper New Zealand connections, with many of their players National Bank Cup regulars.
Among those are Frances Solia and Catherine Latu for Samoa, and Ritua Petero and Angela Tangimetua (Maoate) for the Cook Islands.
- NZPA
