History of Netball
How netball grew from 1890s England into a global sport: its spread through the British Empire, international governance and rise as a major women's sport.
From its origins in a London physical training college in the 1890s, netball grew into one of the world's most-played women's team sports — though its growth has been shaped more by schools, colleges and national associations than by any single defining moment.
Early development in England
See who invented netball? for the detailed origin story — in short, the sport developed out of an adapted version of basketball at Martina Bergman-Österberg's physical training college through the 1890s, with the first codified rules of "net ball" published at the start of the twentieth century.
Spreading through the British Empire
Once codified, netball spread quickly through countries with strong British colonial and educational links — most significantly Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and South Africa — largely carried by schools and women's physical education colleges, similar to how it had first taken hold in England.
Becoming an organised international sport
National associations formed through the early-to-mid twentieth century, including the All England Netball Association. World Netball's history records that, after Australia toured England in 1957, representatives of England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies met in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1960. That meeting set formal rules and founded an international governing body, originally the International Federation of Women's Basketball and Netball. It later became the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA), then the International Netball Federation (INF), and in June 2021 rebranded as World Netball, its current name. It now has more than 70 member nations.
International competition
The first World Netball Championships — now known as the Netball World Cup — was held in Eastbourne, England, in 1963, with 11 nations competing. Netball later joined the Commonwealth Games programme for the first time at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games, where Australia won gold, New Zealand silver and England bronze.
A sport built mainly by and for women
Unlike many major team sports, netball developed specifically as a sport for women and girls, at a time when women's participation in sport more broadly was heavily restricted by social convention. That history still shapes the game today — it remains overwhelmingly played by women and girls, even as mixed and men's netball has grown in some countries.
Where to go next
See history of the Netball World Cup for more on international competition, and history of netball uniforms for how what players wear has changed alongside the sport itself.
Sources
All information on this page is given to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing (October 2026), after referring to the sources below. Where sources disagree, we say so on the page.