Editorial: Netball cup has big role to play

Watching top level netball in real life, you can feel the speed, noise and physicality of the game. Photo / Stephen Parker

As regular readers of the Rotorua Daily Post should know, the Netball World Cup gets under way today. Or did you know?

You should, partly because there was a handy bright pink wall calendar in yesterday's paper.

But while many sports fans around New Zealand will take a keen interest in the tournament, more so as it progresses to the business end of the competition, I haven't sensed huge excitement around it yet.

Compare the build-up so far to the hype around the cricket, rugby or even the football World Cups (in which New Zealand didn't even take part last time) and it falls well short.

Maybe it's down to the fact previous World Cups have invariably come down to a face-off between Australia and New Zealand, who regularly play each other anyway.

Yet other countries such as England and South Africa are now closing the gap and may have something to say about that this year.

Maybe it is the often stop-start nature of the sport. Watching top level netball in real life, you can feel the speed, noise and physicality of the game. Watching on TV, that's largely lost and the constant whistle can get annoying, particularly for those with only a basic understanding of the rules.

Is it because it's a women's sport? How many women's sporting events get consistently strong coverage and engagement in this country? Yes, we support our female Olympians when they're winning but other than that sports coverage is often dominated by (men's) rugby and league in winter and cricket in summer.

Or is netball - or "whistleball" as one male colleague delights in calling it - just not a great spectator sport?

Thousands of little girls grow up playing netball in this country. It's important we respect and celebrate their heroes, just as we do the All Blacks, to give those girls something to inspire to and reinforce that women athletes are just as worthy as their male counterparts.

I, for one, will be watching and cheering them on. Go the Ferns.