England Netball: Commonwealth Games champions' new investment

England netball has been "given a lifeline" by new investment that will fund the national team past 2019, says chief executive Joanna Adams.

In January, Adams admitted a funding shortfall that cast doubt over the future of the England programme.

But the governing body has now secured a further three-year partnership with existing partner Vitality, which has more than doubled its investment.

"We can now relax a little bit," Adams told BBC Sport.

"People were nervous, but the full-time programme can now continue for certain past 2019. There was pressure building up to the home World Cup - that's not a good environment to be in - but this gives us comfort.

"Tracey Neville and the England team can now concentrate on the World Cup and then on moving forward to the Commonwealth Games in 2022."

Adams believes this is the largest investment into a female team sport in the UK, and credits England's gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in April for "fundamentally changing the sport".

"When you have that one moment it's an international moment," she said. "It puts you in a completely different place and we would not have seen new investors without that, but we have now built a good commercial proposition.

"We are doing what male sports have done but we are just a few years behind."

The size of Vitality's investment has not been disclosed but the national side was awarded £3m by Sport England for the 2017-2021 cycle.

However, Adams said in January that the funding would only keep the full-time athlete programme going until 2019.

England, who are ranked second in the world despite a recent 3-0 series defeat by Jamaica, awarded 21 full-time contracts for the 2018-2019 season and Adams says the new investment will demonstrate to younger athletes they have a future in the sport.

"We want netball to be a career, and a career option for players and coaches. We want it to be a fully professional sport with a fully professional Superleague and we want to keep our young athletes in netball," she said.

"As women's football, cricket and rugby grow, we just can't be left behind as a sport."

The England Roses face Uganda in a three-Test series on home soil next month and will now change their name to the Vitality Roses.

It follows the likes of Australia, who re-branded as the Samsung Diamonds, and Adams says the aim is to not only challenge the world number one side on the international stage, but also rival their domestic league.

"The Australian league is still the best in the world," Adams added.

"But in the next three to four years we want to be as competitive as Australia, we want our top English stars playing in this league and we want to attract some of the top internationals too.

"We need more investment in Superleague so it is a similar environment to the national squad."

England centre and Commonwealth gold medallist Serena Guthrie will return to Team Bath for the 2019 season from Australia, with England captain Ama Agbeze also set to join a Superleague side.