ANZ Premiership: Australian netball star Caitlin Bassett signs for Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic

Caitlin Bassett of the Diamonds poses with the Constellation Cup. Photo / Photosport

The Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic have confirmed Australian Diamonds star Caitlin Bassett will join their roster for the 2021 ANZ Premiership season.

Bassett, who has won two Netball World Cups and a Commonwealth Games gold medal, will be the first Australian Diamond to compete in the ANZ Premiership with the 1.96m shooter recently named in the national squad by new Diamonds head coach Stacey Marinkovich.

Bassett will combine with New Zealand-born Chiara Semple and rising young talent Khiarna Williams in the confirmed Magic shooting end.

She told Newstalk ZB's Elliott Smith she was excited about the prospect of playing in New Zealand.

"A great new experience, opportunities for more adventure, an opportunity to play in a different country, something I never thought would happen for me through my career.
"And I'm excited to get over there and join the Magic," Bassett said.

"It's nice to finally have everything revealed, I'm not good at keeping secrets, there has been a lot of back and forth the last couple of weeks, making sure I'm still eligible to play for Australia, these are complications which have obviously popped up due to Covid so I'm super grateful for being so patient and Netball Australia for supporting me and giving me the backing to come and play."

Bassett denied Australian netball's contentious move to the Super Shot format contributed to her decision.

In June, Australia Super Netball announced it had adopted the two-point shot that would be used in Super Netball - despite strong opposition to it.

As a result Bassett, whose accuracy from under the post - rather than from a greater distance away - has had limited game time this season.

"The best teams in our competition have rarely used the two-point shot, I think it's more the way our team have implemented the rule change and what they've done has made me a little void but I'm more than happy to pull off a long shot," Bassett said.

"It's just at the end of the day the coach didn't see me in their starting seven, which was frustrating considering all the work that I was doing. I just want to be out there playing on court."

Magic head coach Amigene Metcalfe was thrilled about the opportunity to work with Bassett.

"The entire team is really excited to have Caitlin join the Magic family. She brings a lot of experience and knowledge of the game which will be extremely beneficial.

"Our wider netball community will also have the opportunity to see a superstar in action which will bring huge value to our sport."

Magic chief executive Rohan West said they were delighted to have secured one of the world's best shooters.

"Caitlin is a huge signing for the Magic and we're excited by everything she'll add to our shooting circle," he said

"As a club, we can see that the wealth of experience that Caitlin brings will benefit our young shooters coming through with the opportunity to learn from one of the best."

The Magic have been granted an exemption from the ANZ Premiership to field two ineligble players, with 24-year-old Semple having represented England's U21 team at the 2017 Netball World Youth Cup in Botswana.