Alwyn Babb was looking forward to defeating Malawi at the World Netball Championships in Singapore next year.
Instead, the Barbados Netball Association (BNA) has to look for a new senior national head coach in the wake of Babb’s resignation on Thursday night, following the election of new president Juanita Cordle.
Barbados have been drawn in a zone with No. 3 side England, No. 5 Malawi and Malaysia.
“I was eagerly looking forward to having the challenge of disposing of Malawi. I believe that the two styles of netball – Barbados and Malawi – we can conquer them,” Babb told SUNSPORT.
“We were not able to play them at any point in time at the Commonwealth Games, but we watched them play and we felt they were not beyond us. We are currently in a zone where if preparations are done properly, we are capable of advancing to the quarter-finals, which means we would play in the Top 8.”
Babb was appointed in January this year. He took Barbados to the Americas Federation of Netball Association (AFNA) Championships in St Lucia where they qualified for the WNC and to seventh, Barbados’ highest ever finish at the Commonwealth Games.
He revealed there had been conflict with Cordle from the time of his appointment.
“In my first meeting with the board as senior coach, the elected president who was then vice president and national teams’ coordinator, made it quite clear to me in the presence of those members who were there that she would never support my selection as national coach,” Babb said.
“So having been selected as president, I thought it was in her best interest to have persons around her she can work with and to give them enough time to plan for the upcoming tours, so I resigned immediately.”
He apologised to the players who are currently at trials.
“Let me apologise to those players whom I had personally invited to trials and came as a result of my involvement.
Any advice they want they can still call me and I hope they continue to train as hard as they were prepared to train with the other coach, but I understand life doesn’t go as you want it.”
Still, he is pleased with what he did accomplish in ten months.
“I believe that my resignation will be to the satisfaction of some netball coaches, but I resigned knowing that in less than a year, I was able to improve the sport somewhat.
I saw the enthusiasm return to the players at national training and as far as the squad was concerned, that integrity had returned to the selection process, minus the favouritism.
Babb said under his watch respectability had returned to Barbados’ netball to the extent that Jamaica, who had refused to play us for many years and only went up against the nations in the top tier, had agreed to a series. Australia also extended an invitation and there were those in England willing to help Barbados, seeing us as a team on the rise.
Commenting on the election itself and the replacement of former president Octavia Gibson, Babb said it was apparent that some of the clubs were annoyed with Gibson, one of the main reasons being his appointment.
He remains a fan of the sport, but will now have more time to devote to athletics.
“I wish the executive well and I hope the [new] coaching staff can maintain the enthusiasm that had come about as a result of my selection,” Babb said.