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NETBALL
In Oman a group of people at the PDO keep this game alive. Oman Today takes a close look

A game of netball can be invigorating as a pastime, while keeping you physically fit at the same time. But where would you indulge in this sport if you were in Muscat? The PDO has an active netball club, PDO Flames, which organises matches every Sunday night. "The idea was to add a touch of physical fitness to the PDO’s social activities," says Kay Doyle, the secretary of the club. However, the club is no longer content with the sport being a mere hobby here anymore. "We now want to extend the scope of the game and graduate to the next level of the game." Starting September, the club is planning to have a formal schedule for matches from week to week. The members eventually hope to organise league matches.

Women's indoor basketball started in 1891, exactly two days after James Naismith introduced basketball in Springfields, Massachusetts, USA. But it was only in 1895 that the current form of netball began to take shape. In fact, the sport was the result of a misunderstanding. Clara Baer, a sports teacher from New Orleans, had written to Naismith requesting a copy of the rules of basketball. In his reply Naismith had included a sketch of the court with lines showing where the players could best patrol. Baer took those lines to be areas that players were restricted to. In 1899, Baer's misinterpretations of Naismith's drawing were ratified, and netball came into being. Today, netball continues to remain a popular pursuit but not in the country of its origins. Instead, the sport's popularity has picked up in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Jamaica, among other nations.

The sport is played on an indoor surface with two teams of seven players each and one umpire. The floor or court is divided into thirds, like basketball, with two 3.5m high goalposts on either side. Players from opposing teams take their positions side by side. The game starts at the ring in the centre of the court. The two centres from each team can move anywhere on the court except the shoo-ting circles. A goalkeeper, who is restricted to the first third of the court, protects the teams net while the opponent's goal shooter, similarly restricted, tries to score. The other four positions include a wing attack, a wing defence, a goal attack and a goal defence – all of which can be played only on two-thirds of the court.

What makes the sport tough is that players are not allowed to run with the ball. "No running with the ball means that each time the ball is passed to you, you have to stop immediately and then pass before you can run again. This makes it very tough on players' knees and calf muscles," explains Kay. A goal earns a point for the winning team. "In international matches it is not unusual for the scores to go into the hundreds." At the international level netball is played as a 60-minute game divided into 15-minute quarters. Extra time is given only in cases where the two teams are tied against each other. "At the netball club, we play two halves of ten minutes each. This keeps the pace of the game slightly higher than the normal 15 minute quarters."

The ball that is used in netball is smaller and lighter – between 690 and 710mm in circumference and weighing between 400g and 450g – than its counterpart in basketball. "It is somewhere between a basketball and a volleyball," explains Kay. The game is usually played on a court of sprung board that making it softer than in basketball. At the PDO, however, the sport is played at the indoor sports hall where the floor is similar to a basketball court. "The floor on which we play is not geared towards any special sport. It is a multi-purpose floor on which a number of indoor sports can be played," she explains.

The club's players took fourth place this year at the Annual Inter-Gulf Netball Championships held in Abu Dhabi in February. "The tournament rotates between the gulf countries. Last year it had been hosted by Oman." Asked about the scope of the game in the sultanate, Kay says that she really doesn't know where it is headed. "But there has been a lot of interest in the game of late. A lot of Omani women seem to be interested, especially because they can pursue this sport in the air-conditioned, segregated environment of an indoor arena."

At the international level, however, netball, which started prim-arily as a women's sport, is now finding popularity among men as well. "In the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other places where the game is popular, they have men's league matches too. It is no longer a sporting domain restricted to women," declares Kay.

The level at which the game is played in Oman is far from world-class and yet PDO Flames has been doing well for itself. The club, which has been active here for about a decade, was placed fourth twice, in 2005 and 2006, at the Championship.

The club's coach and team captain, Jan Madden, was declared Player of the Tournament in the same years as well. And if you are interested in this sport then a quick glance at the box below will tell you where to look for the PDO Flames.