SINGAPORE — Netball Singapore (NS) is currently in discussions to form a semi-professional league in an effort to expose their players to more regular high-level competitive netball and raise their playing standards.

This was revealed to TODAY by NS chief executive officer Cyrus Medora on Tuesday (Aug 30).

According to Medora, NS has been discussing the idea of a regional league for several months already. He said that such a league could feature Hong Kong, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, for starters.

However, he added that the talks are still at the preliminary stages. As such, details such as the competition format, or how many club sides each country can field have yet to be ironed out.

“We have talked about it, and it is something that is on the horizon in the future,” said Medora on Tuesday.

“It will not be easy to pull off, because we are talking about a team sport where you need the same commitment from a full range of players.

“The players in the national netball teams now are also very smart players. Many of them have university degrees, and are also senior managers in their professions, and working in good jobs. So for them to leave their jobs and commit six months, for example, to play in a regional league is going to be a tough ask.”

NS currently organises league tournaments such as the Silkpro National League, which features eight divisions, and the M1 Netball Super League, which features six club sides. However, both leagues last for just two months each.

Medora said that if a regional league can be formed, the funding for the Singapore teams competing in it can come from the S$120,000 that NS sets aside annually for the national teams’ overseas training trips.

“We do get funding for a couple of training tours in a year, so that could be used to help pay for the expenses of the semi-professional team such as travel expenses for overseas competitions, and wages,” said Medora.

More importantly, he and national head coach Ruth Aitken feel that the benefits that Singapore can reap from participating in a regional league are priceless.

According to Aitken, having a semi-professional side is a way to further improve Singapore’s competitiveness at elite level and for the Republic to eventually be one of the top 10 netball nations in the world.

Despite being three-time Asian (2014, 2012, 2005) and reigning South-east Asian Games champions, the Republic is currently ranked 17th in the world.

The New Zealander, a member of her county’s 1979 world championships-winning side who also coached the Silver Ferns to the world title in 2003, said that being semi-professional will help to increase the players’ longevity in the sport, as well as the team’s general consistency.

“What can happen is that you can allow training within working hours which will make a lot of difference,” she said of her players.

“The upside is that longevity in the sport can increase, because players can recover properly,” she said.

“At the moment, our players are amateurs. They have jobs, and studies, and other things.

“For the last few months, they have been training six out of seven days, and that’s huge. Recovery is the biggest thing that gets compromised when the players get up (after a tough competition or training) and go back to work. They end up fighting fatigue all week long.”

Singapore national netball captain Vanessa Lee reckons that her team members will welcome the semi-professional switch.

“Going semi-professional might be workable. It is a balance between a half-day job and then you play netball and train.

“I think for a lot of players, they don’t have much time on their own after netball, and work or school. If there is a semi-professional pathway for them, it gives them more opportunities to train too.

“I think a lot of them will welcome this idea.”