Netball in Oceania

[7] 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.

[12] The sports with the next highest rates of female participation are field hockey and horse racing, both at sixty-four percent.

[13] Netball is extremely popular amongst Māori women, who are more active in sport in general than their white counterparts.

[14] New Zealand took part in the 1960 netball meeting of Commonwealth countries to try to standardise the rules for the game.

[9] The Cook Islands are a major netball playing country in Oceania,[17] with over 1,000 registered members.

[16] Netball has much 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.

[2] Participation in the international netball community has helped raise the Cook Islands profile globally.

[23] The Cook Islands has a national team that competes in the international Golden Oldies netball tournament.

[26] The country hosted the 2008 World Youth Championship[27] and the 2009 International Challenge Men's and Mixed Netball Tournament.

[7] Fiji was supposed to host the 2007 World Netball Championship, but a military coup occurred.

[16] At Gay Games VI held in 2000, a transgender netball team from Samoa competed.