The International Netball Federation (INF) has released the latest World Rankings which reflect matches played since the 29th of November 2020 up to 31st of March 2021. These include matches from the Constellation Cup and SPAR Challenge Tri Nation Netball Series.
This latest update sees no change to the positions of the top 22 teams in the INF World Rankings with Australia retaining 1st place, New Zealand in 2nd, England in 3rd, and Jamaica and South Africa in 4th and 5th place. There are currently 44 teams with an INF World Ranking.
Australia and New Zealand have both played four matches since the last INF World Rankings update while South Africa, Namibia, and Uganda have each played six matches. New Zealand’s 3:1 win in the Constellation Cup in March has increased their rating by 5 to 187 thereby closing the gap on Australia, who’s rating has fallen below 200. South Africa won all their matches and has increased their rating by 2 to 154, Uganda’s rating has dropped from 123 to 122, and Namibia’s rating drops 4 and they drop one place in the rankings to 24th.
Following consultation with David Kendix, the statistician who developed the World Rankings for INF in 2008, the INF Board has decided to defer the World Rankings Annual Update from July 2021 until after the qualification date for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The INF and Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) agreed to delay the qualification date from 30th November 2021 by two months to include all eligible fixtures until 31st January 2022. These decisions have been 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. The full announcement on these policies can be found here.
Click here to view the full INF World Rankings table.