Who Invented Netball?

Nobody did — not in the way one person invented basketball.

Netball emerged from a chain of adaptations across two continents over about a decade, and the popular version of the story gets one crucial detail wrong. Here is what the records actually show.

It starts with basketball

James Naismith invented basketball at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts in the winter of 1891, using peach baskets and thirteen rules, as an indoor game for the cold months.

Within a year the game had been adapted for women. Senda Berenson, director of physical education at Smith College, modified Naismith’s rules in 1892, dividing the court into zones and limiting how far any one player could roam.

The bit everyone gets wrong

Here is where most accounts — including many published ones — go astray.

The famous story is that netball’s zones came from someone misreading a diagram. That story is true, but it happened in the wrong place to have created netball.

Clara Baer, a sports teacher in New Orleans, wrote to Naismith asking for a copy of the rules. The subsequent package contained a drawing of the court with lines pencilled across it, simply to show the areas various players could best patrol. Baer misinterpreted the lines and thought players couldn’t leave those areas — and in 1899 her mistake was ratified into the rules of women’s basketball as zones.

Baer published her version under the name Basquette. But it stayed in the United States, inside women’s basketball. It is not the origin of netball, and there is no evidence it was carried to England.

What actually happened in England

Österberg returned from a visit to the United States in 1893 and informally introduced a version of basketball to her students.

Two years later, in 1895, an American named Dr Justin Toles visited Madam Österberg’s Physical Training College, then at Hampstead. Students were taught basketball indoors. There were no printed rules and no lines, circles or boundaries, and the goals were two wastepaper baskets hung on the walls at each end of the hall.

Österberg’s own 1895 report recorded that the baskets were placed about seven or eight feet high, that play was entirely with the hands, and that no player was allowed to hold the ball for more than five seconds.

Substantial revisions followed a visit in 1897 from another American teacher, Miss Porter of Baltimore. By that time the sport had acquired a new name — “net ball” — reflecting the transition from baskets to rings and nets. It was now played on outdoor grass courts divided into three parts, with a larger ball.

So the thirds, the rings, the ball and the name all arrive in England between 1895 and 1897, through Österberg’s college and the teachers it trained. The first rules of “net ball” were published in 1901, and graduates carried the game through school systems across the British Empire.

So who invented it?

The honest answer is that netball has no single inventor. It has a lineage:

• Naismith created the parent game.
• Berenson adapted it for women and introduced zoning to women’s basketball.
• Toles brought it to Österberg’s college.
• Österberg and her students and colleagues turned it into a distinct sport with rings, nets, thirds and its own name.
• Baer independently produced a zoned American variant — a parallel development, not netball’s ancestor.

From local rules to a global sport

The game spread faster than any rulebook. Different regions played nine-a-side, others five or seven, and circle sizes varied between school districts.

The first national governing body, the All England Netball Association, was formed in 1926.

Standardisation came much later. An Australian tour of England in 1957 prompted discussions about standardising the rules, and representatives from England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies met in Sri Lanka in 1960 to establish the International Federation of Women’s Basketball and Netball. Formal rules were established at that inaugural meeting, and it was decided to hold World Championship tournaments every four years, beginning in Eastbourne, England in 1963.

That body later became the International Federation of Netball Associations, and was rebranded as World Netball in 2021.

Our Netball World Cup guide covers the tournament from there.

Netball in New Zealand

Reverend J. C. Jamieson, Travelling Secretary of the Presbyterian Bible Class Union, is often credited with organising the first games in New Zealand in 1906 — but records indicate that some form of the game was being played at Wanganui High School as early as 1897.

Jamieson introduced a nine-a-side game played on grass courts. Dribbling had disappeared, and heavy floor-length skirts and leg-o’-mutton sleeves restricted movement, so the ball was passed hand to hand, with lines drawn on the court marking where players could and could not go.

Local associations formed through the 1910s and early 1920s — Otago in 1915, Wairoa in 1917, Wellington in 1918, Auckland in 1920–21 and Canterbury in 1921 — with rules varying from place to place until the New Zealand Basketball Association was formed in 1924 to run the game nationally.

In 1922 the four original associations of Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago drove the initiative towards a national body, which came to fruition in May 1924 with the inauguration of the New Zealand Basket Ball Association. The colours of black with a silver fern emblem were adopted.

Netball New Zealand marked its centenary on 21 May 2024, becoming the first national netball body in the world to reach 100 years.

Two changes, twelve years apart

These are regularly conflated, so it’s worth separating them.

At the 1958 AGM, a motion proposing teams of seven was passed, and the change came into effect over the following two seasons. New Zealand played nine-a-side until 1959, and coming into step with the rest of the world by moving to seven-a-side was the catalyst for huge growth in the game.

The name change came separately: in 1970, New Zealand became the last country to adopt the name “netball”, having until then still called the sport women’s basketball. The association was named the New Zealand Basketball Association Inc. from 1932 to 1970, and the New Zealand Netball Association Inc. from 1970 to 1990.

The international breakthrough

The 1960 national team was the first to play an international test series in the modern seven-a-side era. Standardised rules opened the door for the first world tournament, played in England in 1963, and the New Zealand players faced a five-week ship passage as their build-up, training on deck and losing balls overboard. The team, which included future netball matriarch Lois Muir, finished runners-up, losing the final game to Australia by one goal.

Four years later New Zealand won its first world title at the 1967 championships in Perth, coached by Taini Jamison and captained by Judy Blair, winning all seven matches and sealing gold with a 40–34 victory over Australia.

More on the national side is on our Silver Ferns page.

What the original rules left behind

Several features of the modern game trace directly to those early adaptations.

No dribbling and no running with the ball. The passing-only game came from the earliest English modifications, and remains the sport’s defining constraint.

Thirds. Restricted playing areas date to the 1897 division of the court into three parts and still govern every position — see our court dimensions guide.

No backboard. The ring is attached to a 150mm bar projecting from the front of the post, with nothing behind it. That is why netball shooting uses a high arc — research measured an average release angle of 59.8 degrees from the horizontal. Details in our netball hoop guide.

Time on the ball. Österberg’s 1895 report noted a five-second limit. The modern rule is three seconds.

Junior netball in New Zealand still uses scaled versions of the adult game: Year 1 and 2 use goals no higher than 2.1m, and Years 3 to 6 use 2.6-metre goals with a size 4 ball before the full 3.05m height at Year 7 and 8.

New to the game? Start with how to play netball, or browse our netball facts.

This article is provided for factual and informational purposes only. Historical accounts of netball’s origins vary between sources, and some early details are disputed or poorly documented — where accounts conflict, this page follows the governing bodies’ own records and contemporary documents. For current rules see World Netball and Netball New Zealand. Details on this page were verified in August 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Who invented netball?

No single person. Naismith invented basketball in 1891, Senda Berenson adapted it for women in 1892, Dr Justin Toles introduced it at Madame Österberg’s college in England in 1895, and the rings, nets, thirds and name “net ball” followed by 1897.

Did Clara Baer invent netball?

No. Baer misread a court diagram and put zones into American women’s basketball, ratified in 1899. That happened in New Orleans and stayed within American basketball. Netball developed separately in England.

When was netball invented?

Between 1895 and 1897 in England, if you date it from when the game became distinct. The first written rules were published in 1901.

When did netball come to New Zealand?

Reverend J. C. Jamieson is often credited with organising the first games in 1906, though records show a form of the game at Wanganui High School in 1897. He introduced a nine-a-side version played on grass.

Why was netball called basketball in New Zealand?

Because that’s what the game was called when it arrived. New Zealand was the last country to adopt the name netball, doing so in 1970.

When did New Zealand switch from nine players to seven?

A motion for teams of seven passed at the 1958 AGM and took effect over the following two seasons — New Zealand played nine-a-side until 1959. This was separate from the 1970 name change.

How old is Netball New Zealand?

It was founded in May 1924 as the New Zealand Basket Ball Association, and marked its centenary on 21 May 2024 — the first national netball body in the world to reach 100 years.