'We need more Asian women playing netball'

Farah Hasan (right) said improving diversity in netball was important

More needs to be done to get Asian women playing netball, a former elite player has said.

Farah Hasan, who lives in Norton in Stockton, plays the sport across north-east England as a member of the Hartlepool-based team Oaksway.

Ms Hasan, who is of mixed Pakistani and white heritage, said she was the only Asian player in any of these teams and that increasing representation in the sport could "only be good".

England Netball said it recognised that more work needed to be done to increase the sport's diversity. "Our vision is to grow the game and ensure that everyone feels they have a place in netball," a spokesperson said.

Ms Hasan, 30, said that she had played the sport since the age of eight and that she thought it was important for various reasons such as "personal growth" and "making relationships".

She is part of the UK-based Pakistani Netball Academy which aims to help promising players perform at a higher level.

She is currently the only person from the North East who is part of the team.

'Power of netball'

Ms Hasan said there were various reasons why Asian women were put off playing netball in the UK.

She said coaches and scouts often had preconceptions of Asian players and overlooked them for teams.

"It takes a lot to break a stereotype of what someone thinks of you," she said.

But she said at a grassroots level, netball teams were "very friendly" and she said she wanted to try to encourage more people to try the sport.

"Clubs are always desperate for girls and boys to be joining up," she said. "There's always teams to be filled."

She said another major issue facing North East players was a lack of money and time.

"Social deprivation, especially in the area that I live, is definitely a barrier to these kinds of things," she said.

"When people are kind of living on that breadline, they don't want to be spending more on unnecessary things like netball."

Nevertheless she said that she believed in the "power of netball".

Action plan

England Netball said it had an action plan to drive inclusion and tackle barriers in the sport.

It said one key part of this was its work with state primary schools.

"By introducing more children to the game in diverse school communities, we are widening access points and encouraging participation from people of all backgrounds," a spokesperson said.

During the last academic year, it said it engaged more than 60,000 children across 5,300 schools - about 9% of whom were from an Asian background.

According to the latest England and Wales census in 2021, about 9.3% of the population belong to an Asian ethnic group.