Uganda ruled out of Commonwealth Games
Jul 09, 2013
UGANDA’s Netball team has been ruled out of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Scotland and will have to wait until the next edition in 2018
By Johnson Were
Team rankings
New Zealand 186 pts
Australia 173
England 159
Jamaica 143
Malawi 135
South Africa 133
Fiji 122
Wales 111
Trinidad & Tobago 108
Barbados 105
Northern Ireland 92
St Lucia 79
UGANDA’s Netball team has been ruled out of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Scotland and will have to wait until the next edition in 2018 in the Gold Coast City.
The She Cranes were left out of the latest world rankings that were released on July 1 2013 by the world governing body (INF).
According to the rankings New Zealand, Australia, England, Jamaica, Malawi, South Africa, Fiji, Wales, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Northern Ireland and hosts Scotland are the top teams that will compete in the Commonwealth Games.
Only Malawi and South Africa ranked in the fifth and sixth positions respectively will represent Africa.
According to INF director of development Joan Smit, a country needs to play eight games in a period of four years to score rating points to get on the world rankings which Uganda has not achieved.
Uganda last played at the 2009 Africa Nations Cup in Dar es Salaam and in the 2013 Africa Championships.
“Countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Tanzania are all ahead of Uganda because of all the international Games they had played each year since 2009. Uganda has the ability to move up fast, however, this can only happen when they play ranking games,” Smit stated.
Uganda, Maldives, Pakistan, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Thailand, Grenada and Chinese Taipei are the other countries that are in the system that will be ranked once they attain the 8 games required.
The INF World Rankings were reviewed at the INF Board Meeting in June 2012, with David Kendix, a statistician, who was tasked by the INF to develop the ranking methodology in 2007.