AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA’s national netball association (Chaneta)’s officials say senior national team ‘Taifa Queens’ will play international matches which will enable the country to get International Netball Federation (INF) ranking.
Chaneta chairperson, Devotha Marwa, yesterday said they are looking for INF-rated teams to face Taifa Queens, as it is the INF condition that a team should play international games so it can get ranking.
She, however, said it is difficult for Chaneta to get teams as many countries are locked due to Coronavirus which is causing havoc all over the world.
According to INF, the period of ranking starts in July and the federation said it is not good for a team to claim a world ranking if they have only played a small number of matches.
The squads, the federation stated, need to play eight international games, but if the teams play fewer games they still have a rating but without corresponding ranking.
Devotha revealed they are keeping thier fingers crossed that they get an INF-rated team, which will confront Taifa Queens.
She noted: “Should Tanzania manage to be ranked on the International Netball Federation, we plan to play more than two international games with INF rated teams, but with the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult for us to have teams as many rated nations are locked.”
”We are keeping our fingers crossed that the situation normalize soon,” she said .
Due to inactivity and non-payment of membership fees to INF and Netball Africa(NA), the two bodies removed Tanzania from their rankings in late 2017.
Devotha could not say if the country paid its outstanding fees to the two bodies.
However, the country is among 12 African countries who are full members of INF.
Other African countries with the same INF membership status are Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast.
At that time, Taifa Queens were playing many international games and the squad was one of the top 10 ranked teams in the world.
However, according to INF, fixtures played a long time ago are a poorer guide to current form than more recent results.
Therefore past results are weighted, giving a lower weighting to earlier results.
The current INF top 10 ranked teams are Australia followed by New Zealand, England, Jamaica, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Scotland, Wales and Trinidad and Tobago.
