As the Netball World Cup draws closer, more brands and eyes are focused on the sport. Discovery is the latest to back the senior national team ahead of the global spectacle. The financial institution has roped in the Spar Proteas as their latest ambassadors and wellness partners for Netball South Africa.
NSA chief executive officer, Blanche de la Guerre has stressed the importance of having relationships with different brands in order to grow the sport beyond the World Cup.
“Being with Discovery has put us on a different road where players need that attention, medical aid, health, and wellness, so the partnership is perfect at this time of netball with the World Cup coming up. We are communicating with our sponsors regularly, and we form a partnership with them and what we promise we deliver. It’s all about developing the sport and we encourage our members to create brand love and not necessarily the money to be able to play but brand love because netball and sport are for the future as well. What we create today and what we enjoy today with our investors is so important for the years to come and for the little ones who want to play netball,” says de la Guerre.
The partnership is a three-year sponsorship that will see Discovery playing a role in the Proteas' holistic wellbeing, including their physical, mental, and financial wellness. The company also has the naming rights for the global tournament which will be known as the Vitality Netball World Cup. De la Guerre anticipates that there will be more brands coming on board before the World Cup begins.
“The World Cup is 10 days, and the preparations are three-four years but netball will survive and has to survive beyond 2023. So it’s very important not to focus only on your investors for this period of the World Cup but to take care of the current investors, who actually made us able to host the World Cup. Not all of them can be part of the World Cup investment but they will definitely be part of Netball South Africa’s attention and appreciation. We are always open and expecting a call or two before the World Cup,” she says.
“Netball is an incredibly important sport in the context of South Africa. People may not realise it is the No 1 sport played by women in the country and ranks as the second most popular of all sports, behind football above the age of 13. As such a widely played sport, we hope to contribute to promoting an excellent national team. The Proteas are ranked first in Africa, and fifth in the world. This makes them a high-performing team we’re proud to work with in the build-up to the Netball World Cup 2023 and beyond.
“This year, we aim to lend support not just to the talented athletes of our national team, but also more broadly to promote the most popular sport for women in the country. Given the inequity of sponsorship in sports. This is a deliberate indication of our support for women in sports. We believe that through the sport of netball, we will be able to inspire South African women and girls to live more active,” says Firoze Bhorat, Discovery’s Chief Marketing Officer.
The outgoing NSA CEO says the attention that comes with the different sponsorships has made the players appreciate all the love and support, especially with the world coming to the country in a few months.
“I think our girls are now used to the attention. They are very humble in their approach, they are professional. They are appreciating all the sponsors and attention they get, they make themselves available. They are going to leave the country for Australia but they made themselves available for this,” she says.
The team is continuing its preparation for the World Cup following the Quad Series in January. The team heads Down Under for a two week training camp in Melbourne where they will train against some of the top players. However, players who ply their trade in the Netball Super League and Suncorp Super Netball will not be part of the team as both leagues start their seasons.
“It’s expensive to prepare your national team for the World Cup but we have a wonderful partner at the moment, SuperSport with Project Victory, assisting us to train at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport, that relieves a big pressure on Netball South Africa coffers. We have always been active, we have an international program and many domestic tests we host. We need to prepare more and with more intensity on court which means we need to play with stronger teams as we did in the Quad Series, that is where you can measure your opposition and yourself. After the Quad Series Norma Plummer asked us to release the balance of the squad for her to train in Australia against the highly ranked and high performance teams for them not to fall behind with the training schedule,” she says.