Now Netball South Africa (NSA) are following suit, by adopting a four-year plan of their own, aimed at the Netball World Championships in Singapore in 2011.

Newly appointed coach of the Spar South African team, Carin Strauss, said she hoped to identify a squad of players towards the end of this year, and use these players as the core of the team that will represent South Africa in Singapore.

"The first thing I want to do is to reintroduce a culture of winning," Strauss said on Monday. "For the first two years, I'm not planning to tackle the very top countries like Australia, New Zealand and England. I would rather play against teams that are of a similar strength to us and learn how to win, before we go up against the top teams again. I don't want us to be excited about losing by 'just 30' goals against a team like Australia.

"For instance, we are hoping to go to Jamaica towards the end of the year, and I am planning to ask for a match or two against Wales, rather than England, on the way."

Strauss said she expected the squad to be made up of fairly young players, as many of the players who went to the World Championships in New Zealand last year were likely to have retired by 2011.

Talented players

"I think quite a few squad members are likely to come from the Under-21 team that I coached, but I will also be travelling around the country in an attempt to identify talent. We are also putting out the word to coaches around the country to let us know about any talented players in their region.

"I think we'll start with a group of about 25 to 30 players, but then ideally I would like to whittle it down to about 16 players." She said her first international engagement would be a Tri-Nations series in May.

"One of the other teams will definitely be from Africa - probably Botswana - and then we are looking at inviting a team like Trinidad and Tobago. We may also double up with the Under-21 team, who are preparing for the next Under-21 World Championships."

Strauss said several coaches had been identified to receive special training to enable them to take up the position of assistant coach.

"I would love to follow the Australian system of having three assistant coaches, one of whom goes with you when you go on tour," she said. "You could have specialist coaches, and it also means more one-on-one time with the players. But although I am sure I will have an assistant by the time we play in the Tri-nations tournament next month, what we also need to do is to appoint a manager who can take us through to the next world championships.

I think the appointment of a manager is NSA's next priority."