These men play netball and want you to know it’s a sport not only for women

SINGAPORE – Nigel Lim and his teammates have two goals for this week’s men’s netball Nations Series. A top-three finish at the Dec 4-9 tournament and challenging the stereotype that the game is just for women.

Netball may be largely a female-dominated sport in Singapore but it is perceived differently elsewhere.

Co-captain Lim, who has been playing since 2000, said: “When you tell people you are playing netball, they think that’s just a girls’ sport... Countries like Australia, New Zealand and England, they have the full support from men and it’s growing.

“They are trying to get netball into the Olympics, so this is where we’re working towards, helping promote it in Asia and Singapore to let people know that men also play netball.”

The International Olympic Committee’s emphasis on gender balance in its quadrennial Summer Games programme has made netball’s push for inclusion a challenging one.

Regardless of whether this succeeds, players like Lim, 36, believe such attempts will help to grow the men’s game. He noted there has been progress in neighbouring countries and cities like Malaysia and Hong Kong, where men’s netball is recognised in universities and is part of their inter-varsity games.

Co-captain Ray Ong, who played basketball before joining the team, said the ongoing competition – featuring the England Under-25s, Australia U-23s, New Zealand A as well as teams from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore – held at the Singapore University of Technology and Design is a platform to learn from strong netball nations.

The Republic opened their campaign with a 58-52 win over the English side before falling to the Australians 94-20 in their second match on Dec 5.

Ong, 33, who is a defender, said: “With the powerhouses coming in, it’s an eye-opener for Asian countries to see how we can raise our level, especially if we want men’s netball to reach a standard that can be considered for the Olympics.”

Wing attack Irwin Shah Amirul Azami, who picked up the sport after watching the 2011 World Netball Championship in Singapore, said some progress has been made in the past decade.

The cobbled-together team for the 2016 Asian Netball Championship in Malaysia featured eight or nine players, some of whom were former basketballers with no previous experience in netball.

Men’s and Mixed Netball (Singapore) president Mary Lee estimates that she now has close to 30 players in her high-performance team.

Irwin, 28, said: “At that point, we went there just for the exposure, just to see what it was like playing against top teams in Asia. It was just really going in, learning and growing from there.

“Now we’ve grown in numbers and skills. We’re a much improved version as a team now, compared to back then.”

Funding remains a challenge, however. Lee’s organisation is not recognised as a national sports association and operates separately from Netball Singapore.

Many players also serve as key appointment holders within the association and have taken on various roles in organising and fundraising for the Nations Series by selling keychains, holding clinics and running competitions.

Despite limited resources, Lee, who is also the team’s coach, is pleased they have been able to host an international men’s netball tournament. The former national player, 53, said: “This is the first time we’re playing against bigger countries like Australia, New Zealand and England, and although they are not sending their top teams, their level of play is higher than us in many areas.

“But we will try and achieve a top-three placing, as well as finish above the other Asian teams.”

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Selected upcoming games:

Dec 6: Singapore v New Zealand A (11am)

Dec 7: Singapore v Hong Kong (1pm)

Dec 8: Singapore v Malaysia (11am)

Dec 9: 5th place play-off (9am), 3rd place play-off (11am), Final (1pm)