Melita Emanuel-Carr on Sheffield Hatters, Sheffield Sharks double-header and how to grow women's basketball

That is the verdict of Melita Emanuel-Carr, a 12-year veteran of playing basketball in Britain, America and Europe, who resumed her professional career with the Hatters in the summer.

This Sunday, Sheffield Sharks welcome Bristol Flyers to the Canon Medical Arena in the British Basketball League at 3pm with the Hatters’ game with Newcastle Eagles in the Women’s British Basketball League at 6pm. For Londoner Emanuel-Carr, sharing top billing on a local level is real progress, but what is holding the women’s basketball movement back is the gender prefix on the league.

“I think we need to start adopting what other sports are doing. Football is an excellent example, they’ve used the World Cup to accelerate promotion,” she said.

“That’s what we’re missing, promotion for women’s basketball, not for the WBBL and the BBL.

“If we can separate it a little bit we can promote the women’s side of the game in different ways because we look good playing basketball. So it’s recognising the difference between the game and not just making it co-exist together as basketball.

“Athletics do it very well. When you look at the screen it’s the women’s 100m and then it’s the men’s 100m. Right now for us it’s the British Basketball League and then it’s the Women’s British Basketball League. If we can separate it then we also have some independence.

“Once the promotion is out there to say ‘hey, they is what we’re about’, then I think more people would come to our games.”

Sharks have been able to attract crowds reaching 2,000 since making their long-awaited move to their own arena.

The men’s team reached out to bring the city’s women’s team – who are actually 30 years older – under the same roof with them to grow basketball as partners. They share the same gym, resources, some sponsors and also backroom staff.

Hatters play to only a fraction of the audience Sharks can command but Emanuel-Carr – a Commonwealth Games silver medallist with England in 2018 – believes Sharks fans should stick around on Sunday for a better version of basketball.

“I always say women’s sport is different to men’s sport because we are fundamentally sound compared to the men,” says Emanuel-Carr, who spent four years at the University of Illinois before playing in Spain, England and Belgium before landing in Sheffield this summer.

“In women’s basketball we run through plays more than the men’s team would. It’s pretty aggressive as well, so it’s very exciting.

“It’s a family event too, people have daughters who want to look up to us. But it’s not just girls. I coach one of the Sheffield Sharks junior teams and they came to our game and said ‘wow the game is exciting, I’m going to come to more’. We’re inspiring the younger generation in general.”

Emanuel-Carr took last year off to concentrate on coaching a team in London, but it was always her intention to come back to playing and when her assistant coach with the Great Britain squad, Vanessa Ellis, approached her as coach of the Hatters, it was an ideal fit.

“I always told people I’m not retired, I just needed a break,” laughs Emanuel-Carr, 29, one of a handful of Hatters on professional contracts. “Vanessa was the first person who reached out to me in a respectable way, so it was a no-brainer.”