Seven teams from Oman, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai participated in the inaugural event. The first title was won convincingly by Oman who dominated the tournament for the first few years. Over the years the number of teams taking part in the event has grown rapidly. As the burden of hosting such a large event became too much for one club to undertake on an annual basis, it was decided to make the
tournament peripatetic. The tournament went from being a one-day competition to a two-day event to allow more games to be played, and to give visitors more time to soak up the atmosphere of the host city. The tournament is now easily the largest sporting event for women in the Gulf region. From its humble beginnings in 1986, it has now grown to include well over 200 players from all of the GCC countries, includes international standard umpires from the major netball playing nations who take an active part in developing netball and umpiring standards across the Gulf throughout the year. The past five years has also seen the addition of a men’s tournament running alongside the women’s event and we expect the men’s competition to keep growing.
