Barbados have maintained ninth place despite finishing 11th at the World Netball Championships (WNC) which were held earlier this month in Singapore.
There have been no changes at the top with New Zealand maintaining first place despite losing to Australia. England are still third and Jamaica fourth.
There has been some movement in the second tier, where Fiji fell two places to seventh, while South Africa and Malawi both moved up one, now ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.
Trinidad and Tobago remain eighth, and below Barbados, the Cook Islands (10), Northern Ireland (11) and Wales (12) have all moved up one spot after Samoa made the biggest drop, three places to 13th. Scotland also moved ahead of St Lucia and are now 14th.
“It was expected because of the level to which the girls played,” coach Alwyn Babb told the SATURDAY SUN.
“They played six games and won three. The games we lost were to teams ranked higher than us – England, the No. 3; Malawi, No. 6 and Fiji by one goal, who were ranked No. 5. I didn’t think the rating would have been affected by the placing at the world tournament, so I wasn’t surprised.”
Barbados defeated Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka en route to placing 11th, two places up from the 2007 tournament.
The coach said the challenge would be to maintain and improve the current ranking which was difficult given the limited finances. Barbados need to play a minimum of eight international matches each year, but the only games which really matter are the victories against teams which are ranked higher.
“We need to attract enough financial support to travel to countries ranked higher or be able to host those countries in a tournament in Barbados,” Babb said.
He also hoped that Jamaica returned to the Americas Federation of Netball Association (AFNA) Championships so they could have a really competitive tournament, as Trinidad and Tobago are also ranked ahead of Barbados.
Babb pointed out that while netball was played in the region, it was rarely at the highest level.
Using an example of the countries in the Oceania and Asia zones, he said Australia, New Zealand, Malawi, South Africa and Fiji are relatively close geographically and matches are constantly being played in that region.
It is also a short hop across the continent for England to take part.
The cost for Barbados to fly to that region is prohibitive.
The coach’s contract is set to expire at the end of the year, but the members of the Barbados team will be back in training from September. There will be verbal and visual sessions as they assess their performance at the WNC.
“We will look at the matches we won. We will look at the matches we lost, the standard of play by the countries ranked higher than us and we will come up with the necessary strategies and training regimes to ensure we are able to be more competitive in future tournaments.
“I think we are on the right path,” Babb said.
The coach said during his tenure he had seen a change in physical fitness and an appreciation of the areas needed to reach elite status.
“Clearly, an improvement in their ranking in such a short space of time will bear that out. We need to work on consistency in the attack and defence for the full hour of play,” he said.
