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Australia's veteran netball captain and shooter Caitlin Bassett is going to give herself a couple of months to ponder her international future..
Diamonds' captain Caitlin Bassett will ponder for a couple of months how much of the next four-year international netball cycle she may be available for, but has backed coach Lisa Alexander.
The 31-year-old shooter needs just a handful of caps to reach the 100 mark after participating in her third World Cup, which ended with Australia losing the final 52-51 to New Zealand in England last weekend.
She will be 34 by the time of the next major international tournament, the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, and another year older come the 2023 World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.
She resumes Super Netball duties with the Giants on Sunday away to Collingwood Magpies.
Once that competition concludes, Bassett looks forward to playing New Zealand in the annual four-match Constellation Cup series in October.
The dates for this year's series were announced on Friday.
It starts at Horncastle Arena in Christchurch on October 13, followed by games at Auckland's Spark Arena (16th), Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena (20th) and Perth's RAC Arena (27th).
"Over the next couple of months I'll just have to think what's next for me internationally," Bassett told AAP.
"I want to play Constellation Cup and finish off this year on a high, but I think I'm going to have to think about what's next and will I physically be able to play till the next cycle?
"Are there players going to be coming in and pushing me out? That's the conversation I'm going to sit down and have a chat with Netball Australia about."
Bassett has no doubt Alexander is the coach to guide Australia through the next cycle, despite heartbreaking one-goal losses to England and New Zealand in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 World Cup finals respectively.
Alexander who has been Diamonds coach since 2011, led Australia to gold at both the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 World Cup.
Last year, she had her contract extended until the end of 2020 with an option to extend until after the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
After the World Cup, Alexander said she was motivated to keep going but acknowledged NA expected success and one of the things she was judged on was the Diamonds results at major tournaments.
"I believe in what she's put in place has helped us been so successful in the last decade, so I'd love to see her continue," Bassett said
Bassett said she wasn't approaching the Constellation Cup matches with revenge against New Zealand uppermost in her mind.
"Playing the same country four times is a different kettle of fish," she said.
