Claire Nelson knows importance of Commonwealth Games for netball in Scotland

Netball Scotland chief executive Claire Nelson believes the Commonwealth Games will be a catalyst for continuing growth in the sport north of the border.

The netball tournament starts on July 29 with the Scottish Thistles’ first game coming the following day against the Australian Diamonds, ranked number one in the world and the 2018 Commonwealth Games runners-up.

Jamaica, South Africa, Wales and Barbados are also in Group A and Nelson believes the exposure given to the matches can further energise the sport in Scotland.

Nelson, who is also CEO of Strathclyde Sirens, Scotland’s only professional netball team, told the PA news agency about the importance of Birmingham.

She said: “Multi-sport games are so critical for ‘minority sports’ because it allows people to consume sport that maybe they haven’t seen before or they have not seen live.

“If you reflect on that gold-medal winning match for England, by one goal in the dying seconds in the Gold Coast Games in 2018 which became BBC Sports Personality Greatest Sporting Moment of the Year – it is an exciting and fast game.

“And so for us to get exposure like that of what our sport looks like live, it feeds into everything we are doing, our desire to host more international events and also the Sirens and what that the Superleague season looks like.

“We want people, men, women, boys, girls, however you identify, to back netball, not because it is a women’s sport, because it is an exciting, live experience, indoor and affordable.

“So getting a 10-day competition with every single game being covered is a really critical opportunity and we will look to leverage that the best we can, not just for visibility and fans but also for people wanting to participate.

“We have programmes