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The 2012 ANZ Championship will kick off this weekend with reining premiers the Queensland Firebirds hoping to go back-to-back come May. The question is, what is netball’s place in world sport?
Held every four years since 1963, the Netball World Championships have been the ultimate goal for any national side. Australia has won the most of any country, nine times, with New Zealand having won three (the 1979 World Champs saw Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago share the glory).
In 1998 the sport was introduced into the Commonwealth Games, with Australia and New Zealand at two apiece for gold medals.
Yet the sport has never really been considered for the Olympic Games. It was recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 1995 but has never been played at the Olympic-level. For the world’s greatest netballers, a gold medal at the World Championships or the Commonwealth Games is as good as it’s going to get for now.
So why, when more women play netball in Australia than basketball, hockey, soccer, softball and volleyball (which are all Olympic sports), is the game not given a chance? Is it because of funding? Probably. Is it because it’s considered a relatively young sport? Perhaps. Is it because it’s considered too similar to basketball? I guess.
I have another theory; go with me on this one. I think it’s because the United States aren’t dominant enough in the sport. That might sound a little ridiculous, but if you think about it, it makes sense.
In 2008 in Beijing, the swimming finals were held in the morning to coincide with the USA’s east-coast prime-time television slots. Yes, that’s correct – the IOC seemingly ‘gave in’ to either Swimming USA or the NBC and allowed the very much unconventional move to morning finals, putting many of the swimmers’ pre-Olympic training preparations into disarray.
Thankfully the swimming finals will revert back to night time in London this July.
Getting back to netball, the same concept exists. Currently, the USA are not even ranked inside the top 28 teams – the national team must play at least eight international Test matches to even qualify for the world rankings list. This is a ranking list that includes Lesotho (that little country completely surrounded by South Africa), St Vincent, the Grenadines (a nation with a population of only 120,000) and both Northern Ireland and Hong Kong – technically, neither of which are sovereign countries.
So why, with a population of 313 million people, is the United States not more prominent in the world of netball? Quite honestly, I don’t know nor do I really care. It’s actually quite pleasing to see other nations be successful in international sport for once.
However, their lack of success, or lack of enthusiasm for that matter, means that it’s unlikely that netball will ever make its way to the Olympics. Bottom line, if the United States aren’t involved, what’s the point?
There’d be limited interest from media and sponsors and a potential risk that ticket sales wouldn’t raise enough revenue to cover costs. Even though more than 20 million people worldwide play the sport and it fast becoming one of the most popular athletic pursuits in developing countries.
The fact is, if the United States don’t want in, there’s no room for it in the Olympic Games, where even sports that have had Olympic history in the past (such as softball, which was cut from the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games).
For now young and old netballers, enjoy your Saturday afternoon games, revel in going to the ANZ Championship games and get excited when the Australian Diamonds and New Zealand Silverferns next take to the court, because that’s as good as it’s going to get for a while yet!