SYDNEY - It was an unusual start to an international netball tour.
Music blared and photographers snapped away as the Australian netball squad strutted down a runway in their underwear.
The team fly out today for Saturday's test against the Silver Ferns in Auckland before a three-test tour of Jamaica
ahead of the Commonwealth Games. Yesterday they were in Sydney, taking part in a fashion parade for new sponsor, lingerie company Bendon.
Against a background of loud dance music, the 15-strong squad zipped off team jackets and launched themselves down a red-carpet runway to model a range of lingerie and sportswear designed with their input.
Apart from some last-minute nerves, team captain Liz Ellis said the squad welcomed the chance to show the new range to the world.
"I'm happy to run on to a netball court in a lycra frock in front of 15,000 people, but walking into a room with strangers in my underwear is something I don't make a habit of," Ellis said. "But as soon as we walked out and started having fun it was fine."
She applauded Bendon for using real women with real bodies to model their latest range.
"It's great to see an underwear company using real women and not stick thin models," Ellis said. "This range is all about lingerie or sportswear that actually works. So it makes sense that they've chosen athletic looking women who are going to get the most wear out of something like this."
Ellis brushed aside concerns about double standards in sport, saying she had no doubt male rugby players would take part in a similar fashion show "except that none of them are good looking enough".
She also said the team did not feel at all belittled by taking part in the fashion parade.
"They weren't asking us to prance around in lacy underwear or suspenders or anything," Ellis said. "This is a range that we had a really heavy involvement in designing and that we really contributed to, so it was nice to be able to actually be the people to show it to the rest of the world.
"It looks great. And I think it's a real step forward that a company is using real women who have real appetites and real bodies to model something that we are going to wear a lot."
- AAP
