NEW DELHI, November 25: The four Australian women - Helen Robinson, Ronda Kimble, Sue Hawkins and Jennie Webster - have a mission to accomplish. Their aim is to market and popularise netball, a major women sport, in India. The Aussies are the current world champions and, fittingly enough, the Australian Sports Commission and Netball Australia have sent these senior personnel to supervise the Youth championship.Though about 43 countries are affiliated to the world body, the game is not played among many Asian nations. Only Japan and Pakistan have been playing netball officially. Hence the Asian Youth championship, beginning at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here tomorrow, assumes significance. The youth (under-21) championship was first held in Hong Kong in 1994.Played in a four-year cycle, the second edition of the championship in New Delhi has attracted six teams, including India. Japan and Pakistan had sent in their entries but pulled out citing problems back home. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Maldives, Singapore and Sri Lanka are the other teams competing in the championships.The Malaysians are said to excel in this game which has caught up in the region so well that even players from Hong Kong and Singapore are said to have set high standards. In neighbourhood, the Sri Lankans pursue the game more vigorously and are touted to finish runners-up here, if not win the title.So it was apparent that the Netball Federation of India (NFI) had recently hired the services of Padma Gunawardana to coach the Indian girls for the championship. She had been training the Indians and is confident that they will give a good account of themselves. According to Gurbir Singh, the president of NFI, the Australians are here to supervise and conduct clinics, upgrade and advise on the technical aspects of the game, including the scoring pattern.The Aussie women are of the opinion that it was a fast-paced game and needed exceptional skills as players movements are restricted. Besides, the seven-player-each-side game, with five in the reserve for rotation, has specific position from where the players cannot move and have to release the ball upon receiving it within three seconds.And, most importantly, no body contact is allowed. The only player, rooted in the centre position, has more accessibility but even here she cannot enter the `D' where the shooter and attacker take position along with opposition's goalkeepr and defender.The game, divided into 15-minute quarters with intervals varying from three minutes to five in between, has obviously generated quite an interest among the Indians. So much so, it has been included in the School Games schedule from this year. Incidentally, it will be a demonstrative sport at the Sydney Olympics.The game, somewhat similar to basketball, is played on a 100x50 feet court, which is divided into three equal parts with a ring each placed at either end. Unlike in basketball, the ring at the top of the 10-feet pole has no board attached to it. Played with a slightly smaller size ball, the player has to shoot into the (15-cm radius) ring to score a point.If the teams' score being equal, the number of attempts made by each side will be taken into account to determine the winner.
