The Netball Quad Series is an annual international

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

series contested by the national teams of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Background

In December 2015, the governing bodies of netball in

and

formed SANZEA, an international partnership of the four nations to organise a new international netball competition to be played on a regular basis. The four governing bodies had discussed such a proposal in 2012, though it took four years before the partnership could be formalised. The purpose of the series is to provide the strongest netball nations with the opportunity to play regularly scheduled international test matches with meaningful outcomes for the players and competition. The series – originally referred to as the International Netball Super Series – was introduced to the public in March 2016, when SANZEA announced the schedule for the inaugural series, to be held later that year in mostly New Zealand venues.

Format

The series is contested by four nations (

and

), with each nation to play one test match against their opponents. The nation that records the highest number of wins and the highest overall margin is considered the winner of the series. At this stage, SANZEA has agreed to conduct a reciprocal benefit scheme, whereby one series is played in Australia and/or New Zealand, and the following series is played in England and/or South Africa, before the process repeats over the following years. The inaugural series was hosted in Australian and New Zealand venues. Since 2017 the series has mostly been played twice annually, once in the first half of the year in January/February (matches held in England and/or South Africa) and again in the second half of the year in August/September (matches held in Australia and New Zealand). Only one series was held in 2019. Australia elected not to compete in January 2020, with the series replaced by the

Netball Nations Cup The 2020 Netball Nations Cup was an international netball tournament contested by the national teams of England, Jamaica, New Zealand and South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, sou ...

, featuring the original three nations and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. The series had been planned to recommence later that year, though this was forced to be abandoned due to travel restrictions imposed by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Results

Broadcasting

Quad Series matches are broadcast in all four of the competing nations. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

is the exclusive rights holder of all six matches in the series, the network broadcasting the 2016 series on

Sky Sports Mix Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

. In Australia, the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

broadcasts Australian matches on its digital mult-channel

9Gem 9Gem is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, launched by the Nine Network in September 2010. The channel provides general entertainment and movie programming, from which the original name "GEM" is derived. History Nine N ...

. Sky Sport broadcasts matches in New Zealand and SuperSport is the exclusive broadcaster for

n audiences.

References

External links

{{International netball competitions International netball competitions