The netball competition will take place at the NEC Arena from July 29 to August 7, 2022; Team England are the defending champions following their triumph on the Gold Coast in 2018
Friday 12 November 2021 12:53, UK
Team England will open their Commonwealth Games title defence on July 29, 2022 and be first on court at the NEC Arena in Birmingham.
The Vitality Roses, who won gold in dramatic fashion on the Gold Coast in 2018, will face an action-packed schedule as they bid to win back-to-back titles for the first time in their history.
The Roses' first match will be against one of the outfits yet to qualify for the competition. Then, they will take on the Malawi Queens on July 30, before partaking in successive contests on August 1 and 2.
The outfit's final group match will be a showdown against the reigning world champions, New Zealand on August 4.
Currently six teams have qualified for the 2022 competition due to their World Netball World Rankings; England, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, South Africa, and Malawi are all confirmed.
World Netball has extended the qualifying period for the other six places to January 21, 2022.
Once the deadline passes, the Commonwealth Games Associations that are ranked seventh to 12th in the World Netball World Rankings will also secure qualification into the competition.
The other matches currently confirmed in the 2022 Commonwealth Games schedule include Jamaica against South Africa during the evening session on 30 July.
Australia's duel with South Africa will be during the morning session on August 1, and New Zealand against Malawi will take place that evening.
The Australian Diamonds will also face Jamaica in the morning session on August 4 and that will be part of the first of three netball sessions held that day.
Ama Agbeze, who was captain of Team England in 2018 and who now sits on the Birmingham 2022 board, cannot wait for the competition to start.
"The gold medal match at Gold Coast 2018 was one of the greatest experiences of my life and we can expect more drama at Birmingham 2022," she said.
"It has been a tough couple of years with many international netball matches having to be postponed or cancelled, so I know that all of the teams will be looking forward to the Commonwealth Games and a chance to renew their rivalry.
"With the final of both of netball and women's cricket T20 being staged on August 7, and with the women's hockey tournament medal matches on that day too, it will truly be a super Sunday for women's team sport. I can't wait to witness it."
