There were a record 233 senior international matches played around the world from 1st March to 31st December in 2022, which shows the growth of netball as a global sport. World Netball also updated their rankings going into 2023.
The latest update sees no change to the positions of the top five teams in the WN World Rankings, with Australia remaining 1st, New Zealand 2nd, England 3rd, Jamaica 4th and South Africa 5th after the Proteas finished unbeaten in the SPAR Diamond Challenge in November.
Scotland and Zimbabwe also retained their respective 10th and 13th positions following their 41 – 41 draw at the Challenge, despite both losing to South Africa.
Other teams that added more matches to their tallies included Botswana, Fiji, Ireland, Malaysia and Singapore who all played in the Asia Nations Cup from the 4th to the 10th December at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
Botswana, who had the lowest ranking going into the event at 31st, confidently overcame Fiji in the Final to be crowned 2022 champions, which resulted in them climbing seven places in the rankings to 24th position. Fiji, suffering two defeats to Botswana, drop from 15th to 17th position.
Elsewhere, Singapore rise from 30th to 27th after claiming third place at the Singapore Nations Cup, whilst Ireland, who finished fourth, and Malaysia, who finished fifth, both drop places to 31st and 30th position respectively.
The latest rankings are:
1 Australia
2 New Zealand
3 England
4 Jamaica
5 South Africa
6 Malawi
7 Uganda
8 Tonga
9 Wales
10 Scotland
11 Trinidad & Tobago
12 Northern Ireland
13 Zimbabwe
14 Barbados
15 Sri Lanka
16 Zambia
17 Fiji
18 Samoa
19 Cook Islands
20 St Vincent & Grenadines
