Netball:PLAY IT SAFE !

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Every week more than a million Australians take to the playing courts of this wide brown land to enjoy a healthy game of netball. But from this week, if you are a fit, young female -- as the overwhelming majority of netball players are -- you will have to take extra precautions if you want to keep playing the game. Last Sunday -- in arguably another example of "litigation-threat" driving society …

…players in 1995, applicable from 1996, following legal advice given at the time. In imposing the ban, Softball Australia had to weigh up the possibility of legal action by the pregnant woman and the child in an instance where the child or pregnancy was affected against the potential for discrimination, National Executive Director, Neil Dalrymple, said. "You have got to reduce the potential for damage," he said. "And if that means not playing softball then that's that."