An introduction to Netball at the Commonwealth Games

Netball is one of the babies of the Commonwealth Games, having been introduced into the Commonwealth format as recently as 1998. It is a sport that originated in the United States and was derived from basketball. While basketball is considered more of a male dominated sport, netball is quite popular amongst a younger generation of women who got a lot of exposure to it right through school. Although it is played by both genders around the world, in the Commonwealth Games it is a women's only sport. The rules of this game are similar to basketball where the objective of the game is to score points by throwing the ball into the opposition's hoop. Even though it is a limited-contact sport, a netball game can get as aggressive and competitive as any basketball match. In this sport, two 7 member teams try to pass the ball to a player who is within the opposition's goal circle and she tries to score goals. Unlike basketball, the team cannot score more points for a goal depending on the distance from which the shot is taken. The team that scores the most number of goals wins the game. The court is slightly bigger than the ones used in professional basketball with the longer lines called "side-lines" and the shorter ones called "back-lines". It is divided into three divisions or "thirds" in order to regulate the movement of players in accordance with where they are allowed to move. The players cannot move out of their thirds. Like in football, this sport has the four main positions of attack, defence, midfield and a goalkeeper. The goal hoops are at each end and are similar to basketball in that they are located on a tall post but are without backboards. Limited contact means that when a player has the ball in her possession, the players in the opposition team must be at least three feet away from her. If contact is made, then the side that was impeded gets to take a penalty. There is no dribbling in netball, hence, when in possession of the ball the player's simple objective is to shoot or pass. Neither can a player move with the ball nor can they keep the ball in possession with them for more than 3 seconds. A player is penalized immediately for bouncing the ball intentionally. On failing to hold the ball it maybe bounced to be re-held or passed to another player. The playing time of a game is an hour, consisting of four 15 minute quarters. Each quarter has a 3 minute break, except at half time, where the break is 5 minutes long. Like in basketball, there is rolling substitution' where players can be substituted at one point in the game and then brought back later. If a player gets injured or excessively tired, they can call time during the game and get replaced. In the Commonwealth Games, the netball event is divided into several stages. First are the prelims, where all the teams play to qualify for the group stages in which the top 6 teams are divided into 2 pools (A and B). The two top teams in each group go through to the semifinals. It is surprising to note that even though the sport originated in the United States of America, their international ranking is a disappointing 9th. Australia has dominated the world of netball and has received less than gold only on 3 occasions out of 12 Netball World Championships. Such is their consistency that out of the three times that they failed to win the gold medal they won 2 silvers and 1 bronze. Australian captain Sharelle McMahon is known for her remarkable speed in sprinting, dodging, passing, fast reflexes and elevation. She has often produced prolific displays of her impeccable finishing capabilities. Looking at performances in the past Commonwealth Games, Australia have won on the first two occasions (Kuala Lumpur 1998, Manchester 2002) followed closely by New Zealand in second place on both occasions. The third clash of the titans in Australia (Melbourne 2006) ironically saw New Zealand snatch the gold. The Australian national netball team is called the Australian Netball Diamonds. The current world champions are ranked no. 1 in the world with New Zealand and England following closely in 2nd and 3rd places respectively. New Zealand's key player in these games has been Irene van Dyke scoring close to between 35 to 40 goals a game while Australia's leading scorer was McMahon with an average of 20-30 goals a game. In India, netball is virtually unknown in a country dominated by cricket, football and tennis. Attempts have been made in recent years to make it more popular with the most recent being a programme called Goal' started by Indian NGO's and Standard Chartered, in collaboration with the International Federation of Netball Associations. The programme attempts to empower underprivileged girls through the sport and helps to funnel their professional ambitions. Programmes like this one are making the sport more popular and more accessible to Indians and hopefully the country will see the results on the international stage soon. The Indian netball team had participated in the prelims of Kuala Lumpur 1998, but was knocked out. In 2010, the netball events will take place in Delhi's Thyagaraj Raj indoor stadium which will accommodate state of the art netball courts as well as a warm up facility for the players.