Recent graduate wins Sky Sport reporter role for netball World Cup
Recent graduate Chloe Merrell (2015) is about to report from for Sky Sports before heading to Harvard to take up the . Finn Ranson (2017) talked to Chloe to find out more.
How long have you been playing netball?
Since I was six. I was always really active and doing lots of sports like tennis and kickboxing. Then I got to University and decided that I really wanted to do sport, and thought netball was my best chance.
The most experience I鈥檇 had previously was probably playing for my school sixth form team. I started in the second team and became captain in my second year. I ended up as Blues captain by my third year. I was constantly outside my comfort zone, even coming onto court as captain and feeling very inadequate the whole time!
How do you look at the game differently as a journalist rather than as a player?
I think it鈥檚 looking at the level of detail that goes into playing netball at that level. Tactically I can now see when a team makes the decision to do something, in a way that I might not necessarily have noticed when I was playing.
How do you rate England鈥檚 chances at the World Cup?
Very good. We took part in the . That was big because the might have been a fluke, but we beat them again.
We鈥檙e not unbeatable. We have the depth that other countries don鈥檛 have but it鈥檚 pretty open, which is exciting. And outside countries like Malawi and Uganda have got individuals who are phenomenal. But we鈥檝e got a great chance. We really need the girls to do well, as this could be the moment that netball takes off. That鈥檚 a lot of pressure.
Do you think netball is starting to get more publicity?
Definitely. The Commonwealth Games was a big turning point if we鈥檙e talking about public consciousness around the game. Having the women鈥檚 football World Cup at the same time helps. You have newspapers making an effort now; the Telegraph was the first to have a women鈥檚 sport supplement and they got Anna Kessel in. But the domestic league still doesn鈥檛 really get any coverage. I don鈥檛 think people know that they can watch netball or that it鈥檚 exciting to watch.
. The domestic league鈥檚 only on Sky and even then they only air one of eight matches. You have to follow bloggers on Twitter. I asked, why can鈥檛 we just stream matches? From the end of March 2019, all the Super League matches were free to stream. That really helps and retrospectively the sport has gained a lot more views. It鈥檚 clever because it鈥檚 more the way that people now consume media anyway, they don鈥檛 necessarily watch it live.
What will happen for you at the World Cup and beyond?
Across the whole World Cup I鈥檒l be doing seven shifts, covering all the games in an official capacity. Everything that I鈥檝e done this year all stemmed from trying to prepare for this as well as possible.
Then we鈥檒l see how it goes. The challenge is to juggle going to Harvard with writing about netball. I would love to be in a position to do both.
