Netball: She Cranes maintains top 10 ranking as South Africa voted to host 2023 World Cup

The Uganda national netball team, the She Cranes has maintained their top 10 world ranking after the latest International Netball Federation rankings placed them seventh.

The She Cranes have amassed 3,219 points with a rating of 119. They are also third in Africa, behind Southern Africa Nations  South Africa (Fifth) and Malawi (sixth).

Zimbabwe is ranked 12^th and Zambia four places further in 16^th to complete the continent’s top five countries.

Australia is still the top seed in the world, while 2019 Netball World Cup hosts England moved ahead of Jamaica into second.  Jamaica slips into thurd with New Zealand completing the top four.

The latest rankings include games that were played up to March 3, 2019 and only include senior teams of member countries that are involved in regular test matches.

A rating is a measure of the average performance of a team over a series of matches. Each team earns a certain number of points from each international match.

The number of points earned by a team for any match depends on two factors. The result (won, tied or lost) and the opponent against whom the result was achieved. The higher an opponent’s rating the more points are earned for beating them.

Meanwhile, African country Swaziland (Eswatini) is no longer a member of INF and is therefore not eligible for a world ranking

Elsewhere, South Africa has been voted as the host nation for the 2023 edition of the Netball world cup. This will be the first time the tournament will be played on the African continent.

Molly Rhone, president of the International Netball Federation (INF), said hosting the tournament in South Africa would have “a greater impact” on the sport.

“The INF Board decided that the significant investment the South African Government and Western Cape were prepared to make over the next four years in netball facilities and coaching programs in South Africa, the African continent and beyond would deliver a greater impact on the development of global netball.

The 2015 World Cup was hosted by Australia in Sydney, while the 2019 tournament will be held in Liverpool in July.

International Netball Federation (INF) Rankings (Selected countries):

• 1^st – Australia
• 2^nd – England
• 3^rd – Jamaica
• 4^th – New Zealand
• 5^th – South Africa
• 6^th – Malawi
• 7^th – Uganda
• 12^th – Zimbabwe
• 16^th – Zambia
• 23^rd – Botswana