World Netball has today announced the World Netball (WN) World Rankings to 3rd November 2022 which includes all the matches played at the regional qualifying events for the Netball World Cup 2023 (NWC2023). This update confirms the seeding for the 16 qualified teams for the Netball World Cup draw which takes place later this month.
The NWC2023 will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from July 28th July to 6th August 2023, with Australia, Barbados, England, Fiji, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, Wales and Zimbabwe all set to compete for the trophy.
The last WN World Rankings update (of 12th August 2022) was published on 15th August and included all the matches played at the Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022 and identified the six pre-qualified teams for the Netball World Cup. Since then it has been a very busy period for international teams, including four NWC2023 regional qualifiers held in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, a number of international series such as the Constellation Cup, Australia v England and Taini Jamison Series; in fact over 120 matches have been played. This has resulted in a record number of teams (53) achieving a WN World Ranking, and over 30 teams changing places.
Within the top eight teams England swapped places with Jamaica and now hold 3rd, while Malawi has done likewise with Uganda, respectively 6th and 7th, and Tonga move into 8th ahead of Wales in 9th. Uganda’s and Jamaica’s rankings have been impacted by their failure to fulfil fixtures during August and September.
While for the rising teams, England’s success in their series against Uganda, Tonga’s victory at the PacificAus Series and Malawi finishing runners-up at the NWC2023 Qualifier – Africa, have made a difference.
Six teams reached the requirement to play six or more matches to be eligible for a World Ranking in this period, with the Philippines entering at 22nd, Eswatini in 29th, Brunei at 34th, India at 39th, and Chinese Taipei and Maldives at equal 46th position. This is the first time that Brunei, Maldives and the Philippines have earned a world ranking.
In Asia, Sri Lanka moved up three places to 16th in the rankings after finishing the event unbeaten, whilst runners-up, Singapore, also moved up four places to 30th.
Elsewhere, Isle of Man moved up one to 25th after finishing 4th at the NWC2023 Qualifier – Europe, whilst Scotland retain 10th after finishing 2nd at the same event. After five victories at the NWC2023 Qualifier – Americas St. Vincent and the Grenadines also moved up one place to 20th.
Now the sport is returning to a full international calendar World Netball will reconsider the number of matches required to earn a world ranking, which was reduced from 8 to 6 as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic and the break in international play.
The NWC2023 draw will take place on Wednesday 30th November in East London, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Further details will be released shortly.
To view the full WN World Rankings table, click here.
