Netball: Scarlett welcome to return

Anna Scarlett. Photo / Paul Estcourt

The door is open for Anna Scarlett if and when she wanted to return to netball, Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken says.

Scarlett today expressed lingering disappointment about being axed from the 2007 world championship team.

She told the New Zealand Herald she still harboured hopes of being part of a world champion netball side.

Asked whether the coach would have to change before she attempted an international comeback, Scarlett said: "I think so, yes. A few things might need to change for me to go back but I do miss the sport. I'd be lying if I said I didn't."

Aitken told NZPA from Queensland's Gold Coast today where she was wrapping up a 10-day Silver Ferns training camp, that the sport would embrace Scarlett when she was ready to return.

"(If she wants to come back) the door is absolutely not closed on her. I was always aware that she would be shifting from netball to the 2012 Olympics with her beach volleyball.

"We hope at some point in time that she will come back because she's very talented. She's in another space at the moment and she's doing really well and we wish her all the best.

"At the right point in time for her, the sport is still here.".

Scarlett, 26, now a professional beach volleyball player aiming to make the New Zealand contingent for the 2012 London Olympics, was dropped by Aitken on the eve of the 2007 world championship.

That moment "will always be a real sore spot in my sporting career", Scarlett said.

"My goal was to be in the starting line-up and win the world champs in 2007.

"I desperately wanted that. I won gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, I was at the 2003 world champs but didn't get on the court, so I really wanted to be a key player.

"It wasn't to be ... I didn't really know where I stood in that team."

Scarlett then announced her retirement from the code at all levels in late 2007, saying she had turned her focus to beach volleyball.

She turned out for Auckland-Waitakere in last year's national provincial netball championship.

Aitken said she understood Scarlett's disappointment at missing out on the world championship.

"As coaches we have to make tough decisions and the reality was that the defence at that time was incredibly strong and I was always going to have to leave one very experienced defender out."

Aitken said she had been in contact with Scarlett from time to time since 2007 and did not detect any bitterness from the player.

"But I'm sure there's always an underlying grief and disappointment ... (being dropped is something) hard to get over for athletes -- unfortunately, I have to take away the dreams at times."

- NZPA