More than just the players are aiming for a netball world championship finals berth - the umpires want to be in the top game too.
Australian Chris Burton, chairwoman of the International Umpiring Committee, is charged with co-ordinating the 17 umpires for the week-long, 16-nation champs.
A three-personumpiring committee decides the two umpires - and the back-up - to control the November 17 final.
"During the tournament, they will show us, just like the teams, who are the best performed," Burton told NZPA.
"They will be (judged) on performance, but taking into account their neutrality."
The problem with the neutrality aspect was that, as with the players themselves, most of the top umpires hailed from New Zealand or Australia.
That "unfortunately" meant they could not control a probable final between the trans-Tasman rivals.
"It's not unusual to see a correlation between the countries who play at the top and perhaps the fact that they have umpires present, whereas some of the countries that play middle order or lower down haven't yet developed their umpiring pathways quite as much," Burton said.
"It's probably a range of things. It's probably funding, it's probably the lack of consistent competition at a high enough level ...
"Nothing beats regular, weekly competition for honing the skills of players or coaches or umpires."
It was almost inevitable at such events that the umpires came in for criticism, and Burton expected nothing less.
"I'm always amazed when it (criticism) comes but I know New Zealanders are passionate about their netballers and their press are right there, right on the ball, right on the poles, as they should be," she said.
"... so I'm sure if there are any strangenesses about the umpires or about perceptions or whatever, the press will pick it up and run with it."
