The draw for the 16-team championship has put Malaysia in Group D with England, Malawi and Barbados.
England and the south east African nation of Malawi were the top five countries in the previous championship held in New Zealand four years ago. Barbados made it to Singapore as a qualifier from the Americas and Caribbean region.
The top two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the quarter-finals and Malaysia are certainly nowhere near the elites of world netball.
As coach Choo Kon Lee said yesterday: “We are up against some tough teams.
“We are going up against England, serious contenders for the title. We will be playing Malawi, an African nation with a strong tradition in netball, and then Barbados.
“So we are going to experience three different playing styles and hopefully we will gain from the experience, which will serve Malaysian netball well as we look towards the World Youth Championship in 2013.”
Seven of the 12-member squad are aged below 21.
Malaysia open their campaign against Barbados on Monday before taking on Malawi the next day.
Malaysia will wrap up their preliminary round group matches against England on Wednesday.
Defending champions Australia will start as favourites once again but England, losing semi-finalists four years ago, are also eyeing the big prize.
“We are good enough to win the title. We have depth in strength and we believe we can go all the way,” said coach Sue Hawkins. —Bernama
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