Netball and Multi-sport Games
“In 1891, an American schoolteacher by the name of James Naismith invented what has become one of the most popular sports in the world: basketball. However, the accepted dress of 19th century women prevented them from participating in basketball in the same way men could. They had trouble with movements such as dribbling and jumping. This led to female teachers putting their heads together and adapting the game to allow women to participate. The rules of netball (originally known as women’s basketball) can be traced back to this time.
“From here, the sport quickly spread throughout the world. A match at Madame Ostenburg’s College in 1895 was the first time the game was played in England. From here, colonists rapidly dispersed the sport throughout the British empire, where it often became the most popular female sport”.
The foregoing is one of the several versions that have become commonplace versions of the origins of the sport of netball. There is no magic formula that allowed the sport to grow. It took several decades for the leadership of the sport at the international level was able to facilitate rules that were universally acceptable.
Whatever about its origins, the sport has grown to the extent that the sport is now played in more than 80 countries across the world. Of course, the vast majority of countries on the roster of the membership of what is the International Netball Federation (INF), are former colonies of Britain and still members of the Commonwealth.
Unfortunately, despite the growth and spread of the sport of netball around the world it has not yet been able to garner the support of the International Olympic Committee enough to get it on the Summer Olympics’ programme.
In 1995, after much advocacy amongst its membership and IOC members around the world, netball was officially added to the list of ‘recognised’ sports of the IOC. While this was an achievement that the global netball fraternity accepted, the leadership also know that this was not exactly something to shout about, in a manner of speaking. Of course, that is a list that is particularly long and does little to give the kind of hope that the netball family wanted.
We are not in any way surprised that decades have since passed by and several new sports have emerged and with less adherents around the world than netball while the latter languishes in hope for some hint that it could one day be added to the sports programme of the Summer Olympics.
Netball and the Commonwealth Games
When Kuala Lumpur submitted its bid to host the Commonwealth Games of 1998 it included the sport of netball on the Games programme, much to the delight of the then leadership of the INF. The response to the sport’s inclusion was remarkable and the leadership wasted no time in seeking to impress future bidding cities to include it as one of the team sports that should become a fixture. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) did not immediately warm to the idea and it was left to bidding cities and the hosts of future editions to keep the sport on their respective competition programmes.
Manchester, England, host of the Commonwealth Games of 2002, not surprisingly, included netball on its competition programme. England having a very special place in the sport lent the organisers of the Manchester edition of the Games and the CGF a remarkable sense of pride and much optimism that the IOC would have been paying attention. The situation remained the same.
The next two editions of the Commonwealth Games saw netball being retained on the Games programme of the respective hosts, Melbourne, Australia in 2006 and New Delhi, India in 2010.
After the success of the sport in India, the CGF included netball among its list of what it terms, ‘core sports’. This has done much to bring the sport more attention, but not enough to convince the IOC of its viability.
Changing the game
Like so many other sports, netball has made changes to the game in an effort to keep pace.
Over the past several years, the INF has introduced a fast-paced version, dubbed, ‘Fast5’. This innovation sees only five players on each team, on court, at any point in time. Changes of players can be done with great frequency.
The faster version appeals to spectators who are committed to getting results of exciting encounters quickly.
In a sense, Fast5 appears to be as appealing to sport fans as Rigby 7s.
Spectators today want excitement from start to the end of any encounter. In any given day, several contests can be completed, using less time in terms of the number of days of competition and therefore ultimately impacting the cost to organisers while heightening their bottom-line.
Interestingly, the INF has now opened up the sport to allowing male teams’ competition. This feature is currently being evaluated.
In the sport’s best interest, the current leadership remains committed to seeking favour with the IOC and a place on the programme of the Summer Olympics.
Netball and multi sport Games
From inception, the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC), officially established in 2003, included in its constitution that one of its primary mandates was the organization of a quadrennial Caribbean Games. The initial CANOC constitution also stated that netball would be one of the three mandatory sports.
The first edition of the Caribbean Games was scheduled for Trinidad and Tobago in 2009. Unfortunately, a mere two weeks prior to its scheduled start, the Games were cancelled as a result of the host country government’s fears over the onset of the AH1N1 virus, depriving netball a much needed boost from inclusion in multisport Games other than the Commonwealth Games.
Prior to demitting office as president of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organisation (CACSO), now the Centro Caribe Sports (CCS), Barbadian, Steve Stoute, who had also previously served as president of CANOC, joined in the advocacy for netball to be included on its sports programme.
Unfortunately, at Stoute’s last General Assembly in the president’s chair, the proposal was not supported. However, shortly thereafter, under the leadership of newly elected President, Luis Mejias Oviedo, of the Dominican Republic, the sport was approved from inclusion on the Games’ sport programme and to be contested at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, scheduled for Panama in 2022.
As faith would have it, CANOC’s Inaugural Caribbean Games, with netball on its competition schedule, was originally scheduled for Guadeloupe in 2021 but had to be postponed by one year because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
In 2022, CANOC and Guadeloupe successfully held the Inaugural Caribbean Games and netball was added to another multisport Games.
Netball’ progress towards inclusion on the sports programme of multi-sport sporting spectacles will continue in July and August this year.
The CAC Games are being held in San Salvador, El Salvador, the new hosts, subsequent to the withdrawal of Panama City, Panama, July 2023. Netball is on the competition schedule. This is most interesting since like Guadeloupe, the host nation does not have a history of playing the game. It nonetheless signals that the INF, through AFNA, is making an impact by spreading the sport around the Americas.
Later, in August, Trinidad and Tobago hosts the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG2023), for the very first time.
CYG2023 will showcase the innovative Fast5 version of the game of netball, much to the delight of the participating teams and the people of the sport-loving twin-island Republic.
Conclusion
The INF has yet to win the favour it desires amongst the IOC members, to get the sport onto the Summer Olympics’ competition programme.
At this juncture and with the rapid-fire inclusion of Rock Climbing and now, Breaking, onto the Summer Olympics’ sport programme, the entire netball fraternity must be wondering what remains to be done to win favour with the decision-makers.
To those who have been following the sport of netball and the decision-making of the IOC in respect of the machinations involved in determining which sport gets onto the sport programme of any edition of its prestigious and colossal, financially successful, Summer Olympics, it does appear more than a little unfair.
To the INF’s leadership through their years of struggle for acceptance by the IOC, it may very well have them pondering who keep shifting the ‘goal post and why. Answers are never easy to come by where the IOC is concerned. Indeed, for this institution there is an ever-increasing trend that reveals far more questions than answers. It now seems ingrained in the culture of the organization.
