World Netball (WN) has released the latest World Rankings which reflect matches played since the 31st March 2021 up to the 5th December 2021.
On the latest ranking released Tuesday 21st December, Uganda made the first ranking change seen climbing to 6th position. This is placed the uppermost ranking in the history of the Uganda and the Netball National Team-She Cranes.
She Cranes’ beautiful performance and victory at the Pent Series and successful stint at the Africa Netball Cup increased their rating by four to 126, allowing them to move into sixth place, relegating Malawi who moved down to 7th with a rating of 125.
The same two series benefitted Samoa and Fiji who move up the rankings to 15th and 16th due to Zambia falling two places to 17th, whilst hosts of the series Namibia moved up from 25th to 22nd as a result of their performance.
Below 22nd, there was lots of movement within the WN World Rankings with Emirates Netball (UAE) moving up 8 places to 29th and Tanzania regaining a world ranking and entering the table at 40th.
According to World Netball, 2021 has been a busy period for netball and exciting for so many teams to return to the court following the extended period of lock-downs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
These include matches played at the Northern Ireland Test Series, Taini Jamison Trophy Cadbury Netball Series, Europe Netball Open Challenge, Margaret Beckford Sunshine Series, Pent Series (Namibia), Africa Netball Cup, Isle of Man Series, Battle of the Saints, Roses Reunited Series and Netball Scotland Series.
This latest update sees no change to the positions of the top five teams in the WN World Rankings, with Australia retaining 1st place, New Zealand in 2nd, England in 3rd and Jamaica and South Africa in 4th and 5th place.
Despite remaining in the top spot Australia haven’t played since the last WN World Ranking update, whilst New Zealand have played three times with a 2:1 series defeat to England seeing their rating decrease by two.
England have played six times with two 2:1 series’ victories, over New Zealand and Jamaica, increasing their rating from 175 to 178 to cement their 3rd place spot.
Earlier this year due to COVID the WN Board decided to defer the World Rankings Annual Update from July 2021 until after the qualification date for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The top six Commonwealth Games Association’s (CGA’s), as per the WN World Rankings on the 28th July 2021, were invited in October to participate in the games, but the remaining six CGA’s have until the extended date of the 31st January 2022 to qualify.
The CGA’s ranked 7-12 after the annual update on the 31st January will then be invited in February 2022.
These decisions were made to protect the integrity of the rankings for the benefit of Member nations and provide additional time for fixtures to be played before the 2022 domestic netball season begins.
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- Mr. Daniels N. Tatya is an affluent Sports Writer, Commentator and Editor. His over 15 years of covering almost major sporting events makes him a revered and an authority on investigative Sports journalism in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected] +256(0)758268315
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