Pakistani Netball: Meet the team supported by Super League club Birmingham Panthers and inspiring change in the sport | Netball News

In the space of a week, Farah Hasan went from netball to being unable to walk.

In June 2017, when Hasan was 21, he was diagnosed with cerebellar ataxia, a neurological disease in which damage to the cerebellum – the region of the brain controlling movement – ​​leads to loss of muscle coordination.

Hasan, now 30, thought it was the end of her sporting journey. She played for Northumbria’s Super League side, but was left in a wheelchair for six months and had to abandon her university studies to focus on her rehabilitation.

“I don’t want to say that I had given up on myself, but I had resigned myself to the fact that I had done these things,” Hasan said. Aerial sports.

“I played in Super League and it was amazing and I thought I was entering a different phase of my life.”

Then came the Pakistan Netball Academy trials a few years later. An opportunity she discovered while browsing Instagram, and she succeeded.

“I was part of this amazing group of girls who are so supportive of me, and they reignited that spark and made me realize that I can still do these things,” Hasan added.

Growing up in Newcastle with mixed Pakistani and British heritage, Hasan remembers struggling to fit in until she discovered the Pakistan Netball Academy.

“Being mixed race has definitely shaped who I am and how I see the world today,” Hasan said.

“My white British friends saw that I was something different, and I also didn’t really fit in with my Pakistani circle. I found myself in this in-between.

“I have accepted this uniqueness and made it an essential part of who I am.

“I definitely tried to use it as a strength for me. A lot of times I was the only player of Asian or mixed descent on those teams and I still hear the same thing happening to other girls.”

There is currently only one registered Asian player in the Netball Super League, Ellie Rattu, of mixed white and Indian heritage, who plays for London Mavericks.

The 2021 diversity report showed that 1.5 per cent of England Netball’s members were Asian and 2.5 per cent were mixed.

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

Commenting on these figures, Hasan said: “Netball is growing, and it still needs to grow, but not just in numbers, but also in diversity.

“This is why initiatives like the Pakistan Netball Academy are so important.”

Are clothes a barrier to netball?

Leya Shah was part of the Pakistan team that recently made history at the Asian Girls’ Netball Championship by defeating Maldives in the Plate Division Cup final earlier this year.

The 21-year-old from Essex wears a hijab and said she always felt “like an outsider”.

“I always felt like I still had a lot to prove because people automatically have stereotypes against the hijabi,” Shah said. Aerial sports.

“I’ve been wearing a hijab for six years now and I still feel the same way. I know I have something more to prove on the field just because of the way I’m dressed.

“It’s not pleasant, and it’s something I’d like to believe is changing.

“When I was younger, I always thought about what people would think of me wearing a hijab or leggings.

“With the sport being predominantly white and living in Essex, there’s not a lot of diversity.”

In November it was announced that netball kits were getting a makeover.

London Mavericks are the first Netball Super League club to unveil a kit under the League’s updated inclusive kit policy for the 2026 season.

The League’s updated Inclusive Equipment Policy allows clubs to put choice, comfort and confidence at the forefront of athlete performance.

The netball dress is often close-fitting and quite short. The new kit includes options for shorts, skorts (skirts with attached shorts underneath), as well as longer leggings and vests.

When Hasan took part in the Pakistan trials, she also struggled with what to wear.

“I took three different outfits with me,” she said.

“My appearance doesn’t fit the typical image of a Pakistani woman, and I was a little afraid of being judged, not necessarily by the players, but by the parents, who have certain ideas about how I should look, but it turned out to be the opposite; everyone supported me.

“My name is also very Asian and when people read that I think they have preconceived ideas of what I’m going to be.

“I feel like I have something to prove on the field because my name and image don’t necessarily fit the stereotype.”

“I would have liked to see someone who looked like me playing netball”

Haroona Zaman, CEO of Pakistan Netball Academy and Vice President of Pakistan Netball Federation, is determined to change the game.

His inclusion in the sport was encouraged by his mother. “It was really empowering to have someone who was always pushing the boundaries,” Zaman said.

Now she does this for others.

Pakistan Netball Academy, formerly known as Cosmopolitan Roses, has a partnership with Birmingham Panthers in the Netball Super League.

The academy focuses on high performance netball, providing elite coaching, high-level training facilities and a competitive environment that attracts talented athletes from around the world.

“We created this academy because there was a lack of representation and we wanted to create a safe space for women and girls to come into our academy,” she added.

“The academy offers coaching, training facilities, and we have girls coming from all over the world to train with us.

“We need the support of these big clubs to be truly inclusive, to get media coverage, to support our programs and what we do.

“It’s about getting these girls to move up the ladder so they can try out for big franchises.”

Panthers CEO Will Collinson added: “We believed that if we wanted to grow the franchise we needed to break down the barriers in netball.

“Being inclusive is absolutely essential for us because we feel like we need to represent the community where we exist.

“We want to grow in communities and involve as many different ethnic groups as possible in the franchise; that’s our mantra.

“Netball is becoming more inclusive, but it is not diverse at the moment. However, there is great recognition of the need for change, and all of us who work in sport believe in the power of sport to do good.”

Women’s sport is growing faster than ever, with record numbers of viewers.

A study by the Women’s Sport Trust found that across the Netball Super League, Women’s Euros, Rugby World Cup, Barclays Women’s Super League and The Hundred, the total number of hours watched for women’s sport on free and pay television from January to September 2025 reached a record 357 million hours, up from the previous record of 339 million during the same period in 2023.

But there remains a huge disparity in representation within these sports.

“Being a young athlete myself, if I had a role model, it would have helped me a lot,” Shah said.

“For our team, having representation and visibility would mean a lot, as well as investment in the Pakistan Netball Academy and more media coverage.

“Women’s sports have come a long way over the years, and we’re just getting started.”