More than 250,000 people in Britain, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who have registered their support for a sport played by more than 20 million women across 70 countries.

 

New Zealand, whose national team are called the Silver Ferns, have now joined the campaign.

 

Netball New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle said: "Having netball at the Games would be great for the sport and the profile of the Ferns."

 

Castle belives that its inclusion would help the sport grow globally.

 

She said: "In the African countries once you become an Olympic sport that's when you start to get government funding. That's where it becomes much more valuable to IFNA (International Netball Federation)."

 

To further back the campaign a group on the social networking site Facebook has been created, “Bid to get netball in the 2012 Olympics”, with over 21,000 members having joined to date.

 

But the earliest that the sport can get into the Olympics is 2020 as the sports programme for London was decided by the International Olympic Committee at its session in July 2005 and netball is not among the seven sports put forward who are battling it out to be included in the 2016 Games.