When England netballer Joanne Harten joined Canterbury Tactix last year, she would walk through the streets of Christchurch, New Zealand, and see pictures of herself on billboards and buses.
People would stop her to give their verdict on her last performance in a sport we persist in belittling as ‘schoolgirl’.
‘The game over there is probably five times bigger in terms of media, crowds and professionalism,’ said 23-year-old Harten who will begin pre-season training for her second campaign in the semi-professional ANZ League, three days after England’s three-Test series against Australia, which began with a stunning 58-53 win for England on Sunday night.
Eboni Beckford-Chambers, 24, is another England star who has moved to the other side of the world to pursue her career, playing for West Coast Fever in Perth.
‘It’s what you dream of doing,’ she said. ‘Over there, there’s a different level of appreciation for netball as a mainstream sport. Understanding, too; of not seeing it as a schoolgirls’ game but at its elite level.
‘Everyone has an opinion, whether you want it or not. It comes with the territory with sport. It’s not like if I was Frank Lampard, but it’s common in Australia. People will come and say: “Good game, but I think you need to do this or that.” It’s good.’
Ticket sales for England’s Tests against the world No 1 team have, however, been encouraging.
Sunday night’s opener at the University of Bath sold out, with Wednesday’s clash at Wembley Arena and Saturday’s final Test in Birmingham close to capacity.
The series will help Anna Mayes’ side for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where netball could be one of the big draws. England will hope to build on their bronze medal in Delhi in 2010.
Mayes said: ‘That’s what was difficult in terms of the Olympics. Team GB had one or two really good performances in the team sports.That’s not taking away from cycling or any sport where you work together. I mean games-based activity.
‘I kind of feel that’s where, hopefully, we can have a niche and be the No 1 pushing forward.’
Netball could have missed out on an injection of the London 2012 feelgood factor as it is not an Olympic discipline, but it received a massive boost when the next four years of Sport England funding were announced before Christmas. Only cycling and football received more than netball’s £25.3million.
Stunning: England recorded an impressive victory over Australia in BathNetball on camera
Watch Laura Williamson's preview of England's series against Australia
The 160,000 people — mostly women — who play netball every week, play purely because they enjoy this feisty, fast, high-scoring game within the boundaries of a fairly small court where you are directly pitted against another player.
There is no hiding place if your opponent is running rings around you. It feels cruel and relentless. But it is thrilling when she is the one who cannot escape until the whistle. It is no fluke numbers are rising as elite netball becomes more visible, with televised games in the Fiat Netball Superleague and an ever-growing semi-pro league Down Under.
Beckford-Chambers and Harten show netball is not just a school sport which you give up at 16. The former is a trainee solicitor, but earns a living from sport.
Think of the little lad using his jumper for a goal post and dreaming of scoring the FA Cup winner at Wembley. Well, the little girl has her role model now, too. It’s just a shame the billboard is on the other side of the world — for now, at least.
The England v Australia International Series and Netball Superleague are live on Sky Sports as part of a year-round schedule of women’s sport on Sky.
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Watching Heather Watson and Laura Robson’s exploits at the Australian Open, it was easy to think all is rosy with British women’s tennis. Fed Cup captain Judy Murray’s resolve to look beyond the duo at the ‘small future talent pool’ is even more heartening. Murray knows the dangers of fixating on one or two players better than anyone.
Bright futures: Laura Robson (left) and Heather Watson both impressed in the opening week in AustraliaTottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas was accidentally called ‘Jose’ at a press conference. He just laughed. AVB seems more comfortable with who he is and what he is trying to do than he did at Chelsea.
Performance of the weekA 16-year-old from Bournemouth called Georgia Hall won Britain’s first golf medals in an Olympic event for more than a century as she took gold in the women’s individual event and the team event at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney this week. Team GB won 66 medals overall as 93 of the 114 athletes won a medal.
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