Wildcat strikes are outlawed by industrial legislation. But from this weekend, Scotland's newest sports team will be staging them as routine.

Glasgow Wildcats, the newly-launched Scottish franchise in UK netball's Co-operative Superleague, will unsheath their claws for the first time on Saturday afternoon against Leeds Carnegie at Leeds University.

Britain's most widely-played women's team sport is undergoing a makeover with the aim of helping the sport be medal-competitive come the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Sportscotland confirmed yesterday that they are to invest £130,000 per year in performance staff and training and competitive programmes.

"This is new money," said a spokesman. "They didn't get a penny last year."

In addition, it was agreed in principle last week that 28 athletes, the international squad plus a 16-21 "Towards 2014" squad, will be allowed to access a range of institute services. It is also believed that netball is one of several sports which the Scottish Government is looking at with a view to providing additional funding.

Glasgow City Council is investing £200,000 over three years to launch Wildcats into the Superleague programme. It's a partnership comprised of Culture and Sport Glasgow, Netball Scotland, Glasgow Netball Association, sportscotland and Glasgow University. There is additional development funding of some £60,000 annually, the aim being to improve Scotland's world ranking of 15th. The sport is also part of the city's £700,000 Active Kids Programme.

Wildcats are effectively Scotland's national side. Only four players in the Scotland squad of 18 are not with the team, and that's simply for reasons of geography, or place of study or employment. The national coach, Denise Holland, though paid by the national governing body with support from sportscotland, also looks after Wildcats, and the sport has been attempting to secure a franchise in the Superleague for two years.

The money from Glasgow has now made it possible. It is seen as essential in the drive to raise the standard of the Scottish domestic game, which some see as more pushover pussycat than wildcat. Netball is a core sport at the Commonwealth Games, but Scotland did not qualify for the 2006 Games in Melbourne, where England won bronze.

Among the targets of the overall new investment is to qualify for the Delhi Commonwealth games and to have a successful under-21 team at the World Cup in the Cook Islands next year.

The Superleague is the leading domestic competition with seven English regional sides, plus one from Wales and now Scotland, and matches are televised by Sky Sports.

Wildcats will play their home matches at Kelvin Hall and Bellahouston Sports Centre, their first being against Team Northumbria a week on Monday. The whole of that game, and their final match against the Welsh team, Celtic Dragons, will be televised by Sky.

Game time The Anz League, with five teams in Australia and New Zealand, is semi-professional and contained six of England's leading players last season.

Foreign players can also compete in the Superleague, but it's capped at three per club. However this means there is now a potential pathway for Scottish players to move abroad.

Among the Wildcats is Anna Pinder, a Kiwi who has played for Scotland since 2004. She qualifies on residence grounds. Married to Glasgow Warriors' Sam Pinder she works as an Active Schools co-ordinator.

There are no full-time players as yet. June McNeill is a dental student; Sharyn Lyon is a police officer; Claire Brownlie is a PE student; Jenna Storie is an accountant; and Lesley MacDonald (69 caps) is a sports development officer who last year played for Northumbria. They train two and a half hours daily, six days a week, and as a team three times a week.