Netball rallies for TV coverage

Coverage ... The ANZ Championship was dumped by Channel 10. Source: Adam Ward / News Limited

A number of big-name sport stars headed by American-based basketballer Lauren Jackson have backed a growing campaign to find the trans-Tasman netball championship some free-to-air TV exposure in Australia.

Fears the tournament could face a total TV blackout when it tips off in six weeks following the Ten Network's decision to drop its coverage have prompted passionate pleas.

Former player Tania Black has launched a petition on Change.org, a lobby group with a 25 million world-wide users and 850,000 of them in Australia.

Her petition has already attracted close to 6,000 signatures from the netball community and has received backing from world-class Australian athletes such as Jackson, international cricketer David Hussey and rugby league stars Cameron Smith and Scott Prince.

"What sort of message will we be sending young girls when they can't see any female sporting role models on TV?,'' said Black, a Brisbane netballer and coach.

Former Queensland Firebirds player Clare McMeniman backed Black's concerns saying the issue was bigger than the usual argument for equality for female athletes in a male-dominated sporting nation.

"It's about the exposure that all women (and men for that matter) should have to one of Australia's most loved and played sports and the amazing athletes that play it,'' said McMeniman.

"People often speak about a desire for role models in modern society - the netball championship provides them in multitudes.''

Australia's most successful golfer Karrie Webb only recently expressed similar concerns before winning the Ladies Masters on the Gold Coast.

Webb said that if young girls could not continue to see elite women athletes competing on TV they would not have any role models to aspire to.

Former Queensland Sports Minister Phil Reeves, who has three daughters who play netball, said it was major concern that the only female sport which barely kept its head above water was in real danger of losing the exposure that free to air television provided.

"The long-term damage to the sport could be monumental, especially at the grassroots level,'' he said.

"You have to wonder what message it sends out to those little girls, and to the rest of Australia about the value of women in sport.''

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