‘World’s tallest netballer’ Tharjini Sivalingam’s height has been a punishment, yet also means of hero status

“God punished me,’’ says the Victorian Netball League shooter, who grew up in a tiny rural village in the Jaffna District, and in an otherwise small-to-medium-sized family. She’s the fifth of six siblings who are all 25cm shorter, at least.

Sivalingam is 43. The former chilli farmer’s daughter boards in inner-west Melbourne with Magpies’ Super Netball coach Nicole Richardson, where she sleeps diagonally across the queen-sized bed, ducks her head through doorways and tries to avoid the ceiling fans.

Following a two-year Covid hiatus, she has been back playing in the City West Falcons’ Division One team, and for St Albans in the Geelong Football-Netball League, where, on debut in 2017, the locals could not quite believe what they saw.

This week, the Australian permanent resident known to all as ‘Genie’ has emerged from international retirement — which she entered after pipping Jhaniele Fowler as the leading scorer at the 2019 Netball World Cup — for the Asian Netball Championships in Singapore.

Sivalingam had to be persuaded to dust off the national dress, but agreed because the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, combined with the impact of the pandemic, has left the 19th-ranked nation significantly depleted for what is also the qualifying event for next year’s World Cup in Cape Town.

Its celebrated spearhead has played at three, previously, and, after her prolific contribution in the most recent, was named Sri Lanka’s 2019 Most Popular Sportsperson of the Year.

It’s rare for a Sri Lankan woman to be a sports hero. And a Tamil woman at that. But her performances in Liverpool also helped provide Sivalingam with an Australian visa and now residency under the Talented Athlete Program, while she retains close ties with a homeland in which fuel, food, medical supplies and pretty much everything else are in critically short supply.

“She’s very famous over there,’’ says Falcons head coach Marg Lind who, with Richardson, was responsible for recruiting Sivalingam via email in 2017.

“We learnt that very quickly when we went to the Vic Market and there was a massive line for the hot jam doughnuts and Genie just walked straight up to the front and said, ‘What’s the problem? I do that all the time at home. I am a superstar!’’’

The benefits of being super-tall include regular upgrades to the first class cabin when she flies on Sri Lankan Airlines, and the fact that runners - when she can find men’s size 16s, that is - are usually on sale.

Then there’s the downside, and not just practicalities such as finding clothes that fit.

“Everything is a challenge in my life,’’ she says. “Not now, but in the young age, everyone laughing. How can I going in the school if school people also laughing?’’

Only recently has Sivalingam felt comfortable in her own body, which has been quoted at anywhere from 210cm up.

“She’s seven-foot,’’ says Lind. Which, by any measure, however exact, is bloody big.

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Sivalingam’s father died in 2019. Her mother is so petite that it is often asked how it’s possible that such a tiny woman can give birth to such a giant.

Growing up so intensely shy and painfully self-conscious that she was almost mute, raised another question: Is there something else wrong with this kid who doesn’t speak?

The difficulties of cultural acceptance were compounded by the traumas of the Sri Lankan Civil War. There was no junior sport for Genie; netball was an afterthought, if it was a thought at all.

“The family was displaced eight times — they lost their farm and their houses were blown up or destroyed,’’ says Lind. “So Genie actually didn’t participate in netball as a junior, and she used to study under candlelight, they had no schools, they were pretty much just moving to be safe, to avoid the conflict and the bombings.’’

Standing 195cm at the age of 13, one suspects that, in Australia, Sivalingam would have been fast-tracked along the talent identification path. To basketball, probably.

Instead, she was picked on.

“They think height’s a disadvantage, whereas when you come here everyone loves the fact that she’s tall,’’ says Lind. “In Genie’s Tamil culture, the groom is expected to be as tall or taller than the bride, making it difficult for Genie.’’

Still, it seems fair to say that Australia has some work to do. Cue the stares and whispers at the local Highpoint Shopping Centre.

“People say all the time, ‘Oh God, she’s so tall’,’’ Lind confirms.

“It’s like she’s invisible. They say it in front of her like she’s not there.’’

Back in Sri Lanka, talent ID — such as it was — came when she was spotted at the Eastern University of Batticaloa towering over her fellow students. Sivalingam reluctantly joined the team when she would have much preferred to be left alone to study, and pursue a more valued, high-status career like medicine or engineering.

“I (didn’t) like it,’’ says the Bachelor of Economics graduate of her tertiary sideshow that would eventually become the main event. “I only want to study, study.’’

Nevertheless, what began in 2004 led to a national debut — again after declining, at first — and Sri Lanka’s first Asian Championships gold medal in 2009, as the only Tamil member of the team in which everyone else spoke Sinhalese and dressed in shorts and singlets for training, compared with the more modest attire to which Sivalingam was accustomed.

“That was a massive shock for her,’’ says Lind, acting as unofficial translator. “She kept pulling her shorts down lower because she was very embarrassed.’’

But she also understood the significance of what was happening.

“I am very proud of myself,’’ says Sivalingam. “I am only Tamil person that time in the team and Tamil people are very proud that I am playing there.’’

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Lind and Richardson are close friends and huge contributors to their sport and the community. In pre-Covid times, that included helping to coach visiting teams at the Waverley Netball Centre’s annual international tournament.

Back in 2017, City West Falcons had hosted the Malaysian squad for a week of training, gratis, when at the modest thank you lunch in Altona, Lind mentioned that she was looking for a post-up shooter. Did they happen to know of anyone?

“They were like, ‘Well, we know one that’s nearly seven foot’, and they’re like, ‘You’re kidding’,’’ Richardson recalls. “So Marg reached out via email to see if she was interested in playing a season of VNL and the rest of the story is history.

“Genie responded pretty much straight away, and before we knew it she was out in the country and suiting up for the Falcons.’’

She replied with a single word: Yes. Then moved into Richardson’s spare room for three seasons and returned again this year when borders reopened.

Sivalingam, who could barely speak English, had been to Australia once before, having visited Perth with the Sri Lankan team and posed for a photo with former Fremantle Docker Aaron Sandilands who, at 211cm, remains the equal-tallest player in VFL/AFL history.

Another is Pies’ ruckman Mason Cox, whom she has also met. “They usually get a photo with Genie,’’ says Lind, “because they can’t believe a woman’s as tall as they are.’’

The netballer’s motivation for this extended leap of faith with people she had only researched online, Sivalingam says, was because she “didn’t know any overseas people”, had a keenness for new experiences and a thirst for opportunities unavailable at home.

“Big experience here,’’ says Sivalingam, whose adventures include accompanying Lind to an Indigenous clinic in Shepparton. “High standards in Australia netball. And good friends — Australian people, and I also study the other cultures.’’

Diversity, certainly, is a feature of City West Falcons, whose community includes Tongans, Sudanese, Samoans, Nigerians and an Egyptian. Even a few Kiwis. Acceptance of all nationalities and sizes has helped Sivalingam’s own, gradual, assimilation.

So when, if ever, did she feel a tiny bit OK with being so big?

“After I am coming here. Here people don’t care.’’

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A seven-foot netballer is not just remarkable, but remarkably hard to defend. And that’s without going into the supposed “non-contact” nonsense that still misrepresents a very physical sport at its upper echelons.

Richardson is certain that had Sivalingam started in netball earlier, and benefited from the right support, pathways and coaching, “The sky would have been the limit”; while referencing the old footy cliche that, however long the game, the talls don’t get smaller.

Lind agrees, convinced that, had the conditions and planets aligned in Australia, “she’d be an absolute megastar. Probably she would have been stolen for basketball, to be honest’’.

“But I don’t want to say it’s a shame because I think her life has been sensational, given the journey,’’ Lind continues. “Is it a bad thing that she’s not a megastar? I don’t know. She’s a really good person, and that’s the important thing.

“Who knows what her purpose is? Her purpose might be to bring other young Sri Lankan netballers out here and open their eyes to what’s possible.’’

Sivalingam’s luggage for her cramped trip to Singapore — unfortunately not on Sri Lankan Airlines, so no upgrades this time — was packed with netball shoes donated by generous benefactors for her national teammates.

“Genie arranged through her contacts here — she did a TV interview to try to drum up some sponsors — to buy 14 pairs of shoes at the Asics factory, because they just don’t have shoes,’’ says Lind. Or socks. Or much.

Another aspect of Sivalingam’s trip to Singapore is to try to drum up support for coach and umpire development and to support the introduction of regular competition for all.

“At the moment it’s just the banks versus the police versus the army, so there’s no junior development or junior programming,’’ says Lind. “So just planting some seeds is the first step, and talking about what she’s seen here.’’

And learnt. Sivalingam is accessing the unlimited hours of free government-funded English lessons, and working part-time in customer service at Coles, which provides not just a small income but builds confidence and social skills.

Longer-term, Sivalingam would love to bring more Sri Lankan netballers out to Australia, much like the connection that endures in Victorian Premier Cricket and elsewhere.

But this week does not count as a fully-fledged comeback, she insists; for now, she’s content with trying to help the Sri Lankan team qualify for the World Cup, and will not be available if they succeed.

We shall see. As will Lind.

“Who knows? They’ve got such an economic crisis in Sri Lanka that Genie felt obliged, because they haven’t really had a chance to develop netball, or anyone in her position, due to Covid over the last two years. So in order to help her country she said yes to this and who knows what she’ll say to world championships?’’

Open to persuasion, perhaps, Genie? “I already say only I can play in the Asian Cup, help them qualify. I don’t know. l ask Marg!’’

One thing the pair has already discussed is helping Sivalingam to get her driver’s licence, although, as Lind says: “She’d need a truck to fit in the seat.’’

Aside from the discomfort of economy-class international flights, booking theatre tickets for a musical means aisle seats so that she can stretch her legs, and avoid complaints for blocking the view of the row behind.

Shoes? Lind found a CBD cobbler who made some from scratch.

“For Genie, that’s the first time in her whole life she’s had a proper pair of court shoes, women’s shoes, and she was so happy I think she wore them to bed that night.’’

Bathrooms? “When she first came to the State Netball Centre I showed her where the toilets were and I realised she could see over the top into all the cubicles so that was funny but not ideal at the same time.’’

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Sivalingam is unequivocal about the world’s tallest netballer title.

“I don’t like it. I don’t like being tall. God punishes me.’’

Lind, on speakerphone in the driver’s seat, quips: “I wish he’d punished me to be that tall.’’

Sivalingam: “Marg punished because she has to look after me now.’’

Lind: “Genie, it’s a pleasure to look after you, don’t worry.’’

The same goes for Richardson, a former Diamond and an Olympic softballer who has seen her housemate develop and flourish in multiple ways, and particularly off the court.

“I just think it’s her confidence as a person living in a foreign country, and her confidence in her own self and her own body, because there’s nothing of her size, particularly female.

“Even today you walk down the street with her and there’s the glaring eyes back on her, because people have never seen anyone so big. So she’s had it really tough. It’s a really awesome story.’’

Or a film perhaps. Lind thinks so.

“I think it would make a fantastic movie. It‘s incredible, she’s done it really hard, she’s got an amazing love and allegiance with Sri Lanka, but she’s also been brave enough to experience Australian culture with strangers, really.

“Falling asleep on our couch the first night she came, we couldn’t understand a word she said and we ordered fish and chips, and she’d never had fish and chips in her life.

“All the challenges she’s faced and she’s laughed all the way through it. I think her humour has been really enhanced in Australia. I think she’s got that deep down inside of her.’’

Which is a long way down, obviously, by usual bodily standards, as part of a remarkable journey for a reluctant seven-footer who is nevertheless all about onwards and not — not any more — just about up.