Geography of netball
[1][3] IFNA member nations are divided into five regional groups: Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
[10] South Africa was part of the 1960 meeting of Commonwealth countries in Sri Lanka that standardised the rules for the game.
[12][13][14] During the 1995 Netball World Championships South Africa scored an upset win over New Zealand in pool play and finished second behind Australia.
[14] In 2000, New Zealand's national side toured South Africa for the first time, playing three test matches.
[15] In Botswana netball is primarily played by women,[16] with men traditionally serving as officials, coaches and administrators for the sport.
[16] Netball was introduced to Tanzania after World War I, when the country was under British colonial rule.
All primary schools in the country have a court and children are generally recruited to high level teams at a young age.
[17] The Netball Association of Tanzania (CHANETA) was created in 1966 and has been mostly run by women, although men can play a role in coaching.
[15] During the 1970s and 1980s, the International Olympic Committee and the British Council promoted netball in Tanzania,[18] but were unwilling to investment money.
[21][22] As of August 2015, several teams in the region ranked amongst the top 25 in the world, including Jamaica (4th), Trinidad & Tobago (9th) Barbados (11th), Saint Lucia (18th), Canada (21st), and the United States of America (25th).
[23] Once graduated, players created club sides for casual play, expanding the game throughout the country.
They formed a national team to compete in the West Indies Tournament that was held in Montserrat in August 1959.
[32] Twelve nations will be competing at the 2016 FISU World University Netball Championship in Miami, Florida.
[35][36][37][38] The IFNA Asia region includes countries such as Australia (geopolitically considered part of Oceania), India, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
[41] Australia's national team toured England in 1957,[11] which resulted in a number of Commonwealth countries organising a meeting to try to standardise the rules of the game.
[48] Prior to the establishment of the ANZ Championship, the National Netball League was the major competition in Australia.
[52] In 2001 India's national team competed in the fifth Asian Netball Championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
[54] In 2001, netball was sufficiently popular in South East Asia for it to be included in the 21st Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur.
[7] Netball was first played in Sri Lanka by Ceylon Girl Guide Company at Kandy High School in 1921.
[56] In 1927, netball was played at a Government Training College for the first time, helping to spread the game around Sri Lanka.
[56] The 1960 netball meeting of Commonwealth countries to try to standardise the rules for the game took place in Sri Lanka.
[56] Sri Lanka had a national team compete in the fifth Asian Netball Championship held in Colombo.
[60] Its inclusion had been at times controversial; during the 1910s and 1920s, schools worried about the potential negative impact of physical exercise on the health of girls.
[63] Like other national associations, the Welsh have created a modified version of the game for children called "Dragon Netball".
[71] The popularity of netball is growing amongst men on the island countries in Oceania, because sport is an important way for villages to keep in touch with each other.
[74] The sports with the next highest rates of female participation are field hockey and horse racing, both at sixty-four percent.
[77] Netball has a lot of grass roots support and is an important part of life for many women on the islands.
New Zealand worked hard to develop the sport in the country during the 1980s, when they hosted a number of coaching and umpiring clinics.
