Caribbean Netball Champs postponed, Jamaica withdrew over ranking fears
The Senior Caribbean Netball Championships that had been scheduled to run from August 19-26 has been postponed following the withdrawal of Barbados and Grenada as well as Jamaica.
Jamaica was notified of the postponement of the tournament on August 4, a day after the board of Netball Jamaica decided to withdraw from the tournament because there would be little benefit to the country’s netball programme and there would be the potential loss of ranking points for the Sunshine Girls currently ranked fourth in the world.
“The Board of Directors of Netball Jamaica voted unanimously on August 3rd, 2017 to withdraw Jamaica’s entry from the Senior Caribbean Champion. The decision was reached on the heels of a presentation from NJ’s Coaching Committee which detailed an analysis of the possible outcomes to be derived from participation in the Caribbean Championships that were, for the first time, being classified as a ranking tournament,” a statement from Netball Jamaica said.
“The tournament would involve teams that have not yet attained rating points and teams that currently hold less than 100 points. Consultations were also held with the players, coaching staff and Technical Committee of Netball Jamaica.”
According to Netball Jamaica, the review revealed that participation would result in a loss of five rating points. Jamaica currently has a world ranking of 4th which is based on a rating of 149. The country that is ranked 3rd has a rating of 159, whilst the 5th ranked has attained a rating of 137.
The report revealed that, assuming that Jamaica wins every match played during this tournament, on its conclusion the country could lose 5 rating points, which mathematically results in a rating of 144. This would effectively widen the gap between Jamaica and England currently holding third place in the world ranking to 15 points, while at the same time, narrow the difference in rating points between it and South Africa currently ranked at 5th from 13 to 8.
NJ said it remained committed to participating in regional friendly encounters for the purpose of regional ranking, but reserves the right to determine when and against whom it competes for the world ranking.
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