Malawi Queens maintain 5th position on World ranking

Malawi Queens have maintained their fifth position on the world netball rankings and still remain in first position in Africa despite suffering eight consecutive defeats during the 2014 Fast5 Netball Series and the Test Series matches in England.

According to the latest updated ranking list released by the International Netball Federation (INF), it has taken into consideration the Test Series held in England, and the Nations Cup held in Singapore, since January to December last year.

As a result of these matches there is no change to the top ten, but the Queens could loose their position to 6^th placed South Africa as they [Queens] have a rating of 135, one ahead of South Africa.

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. Their rating is the total number of points earned divided by the number of matches played. The team with the highest rating is ranked first in the world. The next highest rating is ranked second and so on.

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.

Australia is ranked number one in the world because it has the highest rating of 199, which is 25 ahead of second-placed New Zealand and 38 in front of third-positioned England. There are 36 rated netball playing countries in the world.