Stacey answers our questions about what life is like for the England Netball team out in Delhi.

How are you enjoying the food - are you eating any Indian food?

The food hall is fantastic, I think that even the fussiest of eaters would be able to find someting to eat. As I previosuly mentioned, there are several food stations (Western, African, Asian, Indian and sizzling salads) where you can go to and pick as little or as much of the dishes that each of those food groups are offering at that time.

They tend to change what is on offer each day but the food is available 24/7 as each athlete is on an individual schedule to suit their competition needs. I haven’t visitied the Indian food station too often, however, I have made sure to try most things as I enjoy variety in my diet.

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Has the lack of crowds made a big difference to the atmosphere?

Some people like to play in front of a crowd and some people don’t so it really depends on the athlete’s personal preferences. Personally I love a crowd, however if there are not alot of people there it will not alter how I play. The competition is such a big event that a certain amount of atmosphere is already created in the running of the event.

Within the group we also create our own atmosphere and bubble to sink into during games where really nothing outside of the immediate surroundings should affect you. We cheer and support each other throughout the game, from the bench and on the court.

Is netball played much in India? Do the crowd’s understand the game?

The crowds appear to have a great grasp of the game as far as I can tell and are clearly passionate about sport. Netball as far as I know is played very little in India. However, I know that they are looking to use netball as a vehicle of empowerment for the females in the country and are keen to develop the sport and utilise the fabulous facilities that they have now created. We saw the Indian team play against Australia yesterday and they where extremely accomplished and certainly knew what they where doing. No team in this competition is to be taken lightly.

Is confidence rocketing now you have two wins under your belt?

The confidence and self-belief in the team was already sky high coming into the competition and I really feel that that is important. Going into a competition you should not look to create self confidence through your performances, although giving it a boost can never harm it. After the two wins the mood in camp is of course good however we are working towards a greater goal and improvement from play to play, quarter to quarter, game to game.

How are the match playing facilities?

The facilities, both for training session and games, are world class and even better than some of the facilities that I have used at home. The provisions available to us as netballers have been far and beyond what we need or could have expected.

Do you get to hear about the rest of the England and home nations successes?

News is circulated about the rest of Team England’s results regularly and usually delivered to us through our team manager who will give us a round up of the medals won that day. Of course we keep a tab on how everyone is getting on too, Team England have a live feed to the BBC coverage of the games through satellite boxes in our rooms as well as an Australian and an Indian sports channel. Not to mention that when we have the time we love to get out there and head to other venues to watch the athletes perform. Today, being our rest day we ventured to watch the mens individual all round finals and saw a gold and silver medal clinched with a bronze medal narrowly missed out on. There is a great vibe amongst Team England and we regularly speak to each other in passing and keep tabs on each other.

Do you get to hear the response from back home?

As a team personally we receive many message of support from friends, family and fans and it is nice to know that the support we are recieving here extends all the way back to England and those people following us closely regardless of the distance and time difference!

Stacey Francis, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine