Netball is hoping to follow the example of rugby sevens by campaigning for the inclusion of a cut-down, speeded-up version of the sport in the Olympics, overhauling its image and attempting to banish forever associations with airtex shirts, bibs and windblown playgrounds.
A new version of the sport trialled earlier this month will be used as the catalyst for a long-term push for international growth that will result in a lobbying campaign for inclusion at the 2020 or 2024 Olympic games. If successful it would become the latest to try to follow Twenty20 cricket by introducing new rules, more spectator participation and new outfits.
The so-called "fastnet" version of the sport was tried for the first time at the MEN arena in Manchester last weekend with the blessing of the international federation in a six-country World Series tournament.
Played in four fast-paced six-minute quarters, the rule changes were designed to speed the game up and encourage attacking play. Shots were allowed from outside the goal circle as well as inside, scoring two points instead of one, and teams were allowed to nominate one quarter as a "power play" during which all goals counted double. Supporters were encouraged to vocally back their team and sit in designated areas, which included the England Enclosure, the Aussie Posse, the Kiwi Corner and the Malawi Mezzanine (by which point organisers were presumably running out of alliterative monikers).
England Netball's chief executive, Paul Clark, said it was a "great success" and would help build on progress in recent years that has enabled it to secure a high-profile sponsorship deal from the Co-operative, launch a super league, and secure regular coverage on Sky Sports.
It is hoped that the fastnet format will also help build participation levels and persuade those who have given up the sport due to time or family pressures to return. There are more than 3,200 registered clubs in England and the sport is played in 81% of schools, despite growing competition from women's football.
Earlier this month, rugby sevens and golf were admitted to the Olympics from 2016 ahead of five other sports following a lengthy process of evaluation and a final vote by the IOC members. President Jacques Rogge said that, now the Olympics was back to its maximum capacity of 28 sports, in future a single sport would be dropped and another added in order to continually refresh the programme.
"Twenty-eight sports was the maximum. To keep the rejuvenation of the sports you need a system of elimination and re-entry," he said. "In the future that is what we will do on a regular basis, at times removing one sport and adding another one."
Some of the sports that missed out this time – squash, karate, baseball, softball and roller sports – are likely to try again, along with others hoping for Olympic representation. Not only does inclusion bring kudos, marketing and growth opportunities, it opens up investment in countries such as China and Russia that tend to focus their budgets on medal-winning opportunities.
Netball would tick some IOC boxes in that it would help open up the prospect of Olympic success to new countries. The sport would also help boost female participation in the games. Yet Clark conceded there was much to do before it could become an Olympic sport, particularly in terms of international expansion. "One thing rugby sevens' inclusion does is act as a precedent," he said. "It's not the traditional version of the sport they have included, but a hybrid. We've got to capitalise and build the sport in emerging African nations, in the US and elsewhere."
One possible route to a campaign for Olympic inclusion would be to follow the rugby sevens model and build a global tour of fastnet events in various parts of the world, said Clark.
"There is still a perception among some that netball is played only in school playgrounds," he said. "If they witnessed the elite athletes playing Super League netball, they would soon see that is not the case. The fastnet version will really start to push the door open for us – if not in 2020 then in 2024."
Emulating the success of Twenty20 is far from guaranteed. Snooker, water polo, athletics, golf, boxing and even three-day eventing (compressed to one day) are among the sports to have had makeovers, with varying degrees of success.
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
