LIVERPOOL, England (CMC):

The Jamaica netball team made a perfect start to FastNet World Series.

The Jamaicans edged past Malawi 32-30 in the first of their two games yesterday in the six-nation tournament at the Liverpool Echo Arena.

The Sunshine Girls have fielded a full-strength side in the shortened version of the game, and they also brought this depth to bear, when they crushed South Africa 34-22 in their second game on the opening day.

Jamaica were the runners-up to New Zealand's Fast Ferns in the inaugural competition last year in the British city of Manchester.

Speaking from her hotel room in Liverpool, Jamaica's head coach, Connie Francis, shared that her girls are extremely excited about their positive start, but are more focused on continuing in that vein.

"Netball has had a rough patch and things aren't exactly going great for us at this point, but the girls are determined and focused on doing well and lifting the programme,"said Francis. "We know we are capable of doing great things and this is an opportunity for us, and everyone is just focused on doing their best."

Francis continued: "We just have to keep doing what we did in the first two games, continue to work on minimising our turnovers, shoot well - this is an area that we can tidy up a bit in and we have to make the most of our power plays if we are going to get the right results tomorrow (today)."

Francis went on to praise the girls for their approach against Malawi and South Africa.

Jamaica play three more round-robin matches today, facing traditional netball's world No 1 Australia and then hosts England and, finally, the reigning champions.

The top four nations advance to tomorrow's finals.

Fast Net is netball's version of Twenty20 cricket, with six-minute quarters, unlimited substitutions, two-point goals for outside shots, and Power-Play quarters in which all goals score double points.

The new format, known as FastNet, tests the fitness, technical ability and tactical awareness of the best players in the World.

Spectators will witness some of the world's greatest netball promising a fast, ferocious and vibrant competition in an aim to raise the profile of the sport, and attract new participants and fans.