Irene says she won’t be bitter

CHRISTCHURCH – Star Silver Ferns goal shoot Irene van Dyk says she won’t be bitter towards Netball South Africa if it decides to “play dirty” and stop her representing New Zealand at next year’s Commonwealth Games.

Netball South Africa’s (NSA) executive has to decide whether to grant permission to the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) to select former Proteas captain van Dyk for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

The NZOC is also seeking permission to select Silver Ferns defender, former Fijian captain Vilimaina Davu.

The NZOC believes permission from Fiji and South Africa is all that is required for van Dyk and Davu to be eligible for NZ because the pair represented their native countries at the last Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

The main focus of a brewing international eligibility row centres on match-winner van Dyk, who has become an integral member of the Silver Ferns after emigrating to NZ from SA at the beginning of last year.

“It is their choice,” van Dyk said of NSA, before turning out for NZ against SA in the second game of the tri-nations in Canberra last night.

“If they want to play dirty, that’s fine. It’s out of my hands. I will play my heart out for NZ. I will do anything that I can for NZ to win every game that we play.”