Netball: No such thing as friendly games for netball's losers

It would have been too cruel to remind the players representing Sri Lanka and Fiji here yesterday that netball was first played in England with wastepaper baskets. It is kinder to say that both teams exemplified the dubious notion that taking part counts more than winning.

If that is the case, then those spectators dotted around the court in the MEN Arena must have spent an afternoon of sheer bliss, not only sheltering from the rain but also in the company of Commonwealth Games losers: Canada, who edged Sri Lanka, 52-49, and Barbados, who pipped Fiji, 46-44, merely salvaged one win apiece – among the also-rans. All four will go from the group stage to the waste basket of competing for rankings instead of medals between now and the closing ceremony on Sunday.

It did not take goal difference to separate the teams, although they all had reason to blush on that score. Canada finished fourth in Pool A, having scored 137 and conceded 286 (minus 149). Sri Lanka, fifth and last in Pool A, scored 156 and conceded 291 (minus 135). Both suffered severely at the hands of New Zealand, who set a Games record by defeating Canada 101-17, and then broke it by beating Sri Lanka 116-26.

Barbados, fourth in Pool B, finished with 131 goals for and 240 against (minus 109). Fiji are bottom of the group, having scored 151 and conceded 265 (minus 114).

But enough of this carping. Watching the four losers really was a treat yesterday. Both matches brought excitement, an abundance of skill at speed and more than enough bruising competitive spirit.

Sri Lanka led 13-11 after the first quarter, only for Canada to overtake them in the second quarter, 15-10. Sri Lanka trailed by seven goals at the start of the fourth quarter, but rallied to push Canada close at the finish. "We are not happy," said Sri Lanka's team manager, Chandra Pathiraja. "We should have won this game." Dulcina Wind, Canada's captain, simply enjoyed the moment. "It feels absolutely wonderful," she said.

Fiji, whose short-passing style troubled their opponents in the third quarter, continued to press and were only two goals adrift with three minutes to play, at which point Barbados kept possession until the clock ran down.

The duel between Taraima Rara, Fiji's tall, skinny 19-year-old goal-shooter, and Sherry Martindale, the 26-year-old Barbados goalkeeper and captain, belied the image of cheerleaders without pom-poms. Their battle was reminiscent of those between football's centre-forwards and centre-halves of yore. Although a head shorter than Rara, Martindale was in aggressive mode. Bumping was the least of her attempts to intimidate. She balked Rara with arms and legs and even stepped on her toes.

Netball is the No 1 sport for women in Barbados, with 5,000 participants and more than 10 per cent of the population eager to view televised matches. West Indian cricketers number among the fans of Barbadian netball. Ranked 10th after the 1999 World Championships, Barbados are now No 2 in the Caribbean behind Jamaica.

More than 1,200 women play netball in Fiji , who qualified for the Commonwealth Games by winning the Norfolk Island (five miles by two) Mini South Pacific Games and are currently ranked No 6 in the world. Sri Lanka won the Asian Netball Championship for the third time last year, defeating Singapore, 55-54, in the final in Colombo. The team is ranked No 21 in the world.

Canada are the poor relations of netball in terms of participation and funding. Overwhelmed by basketball, Canadian netball attracts only 600 participants, and the Canadian Amateur Netball Association relies almost entirely on its own fund-raising and contributions from players. The players had to pay their own way to the 1999 World Championships in New Zealand. "We sort of felt we had won a gold medal just by getting there," said their coach, Rosemary Ann Wilcocks.

Australia, which boasts 750,000 affiliated players, has been the leading netball nation for the past 20 years. They won the last three World Championships and eight of the past 10 overall, and won the gold medal when the sport was introduced to the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia in 1998.

During the winter of 1983, your correspondent encountered Jeff Bond, sports psychologist at the Australian Institute of Sport, who was working with an under-21 netball squad touring Britain. At that time, the Australian Institute had been established for two years. "We get criticism levelled at us," Bond said, "mainly by people who think we're making sport too serious. But if you look at what we are competing against internationally, there's only one way we can go." Few would argue with him now.