The Diamonds will go into tomorrow’s opening fixture with a combined 483 Test caps after Alexander named her 12 player team for the 107th international trans-Tasman Test match.
“These selected players have form on the board,” Alexander said.
“Both Chelsea (Pitman) and Susan (Pratley) have both pushed hard at selection and have done a terrific job, but we just felt that we needed to go with this team of 12 for this particular Test.”
Nine players from last year’s victorious World Netball Championships team will again line up in the green and gold for Sunday’s first Test while Madison Browne, Rebecca Bulley and Bianca Chatfield fill the remaining three Australian team spots. While both Browne and Bulley recently took the court for the Diamonds in the 2011 Holden Netball Test Series, Chatfield hasn’t played for Australia since the 2010 UK Tour and hasn’t played representative international netball on Australian soil since the 2008 Holden Netball Test Series.
Diamonds captain Natalie von Bertouch will captain the Australia Diamonds at home for the first time since her appointment over twelve months ago before the 2011 World Netball Championships. Injury plagued since being announced as captain in April 2011, replacing the injured Sharelle McMahon, von Bertouch was ruled out of last year’s Holden Netball Test Series against England and New Zealand with a foot injury.
“It’s a dream come true for me to be able to captain the Diamonds and to do it in Melbourne where we’ll have a huge crowd and support, I can’t wait to get out on court,” von Bertouch said.
“I haven’t played (for Australia) since the World Netball Championships win last year so it’s been a long time, I’m definitely going to be nervous when I’m stepping out there on court but I’ll be so excited so I’ll try to use that nervous energy to my advantage.”
The Australian Diamonds take on the New Zealand Silver Ferns in the first Test of the 2012 Constellation Cup at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena on Sunday at 2.00pm. Limited tickets are available through Ticketek. FOX SPORTS 2, Telstra BigPond Sport TV and ABC Grandstand will bring you all the action live from the first Test.
Australian Diamonds team for the first Test: Caitlin Bassett, Erin Bell, Madison Browne, Rebecca Bulley, Bianca Chatfield, Julie Corletto, Catherine Cox (vice-captain), Kimberlee Green, Laura Geitz, Mo’onia Gerrard, Natalie Medhurst, Natalie von Bertouch (captain).
