Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Not much gain for Indian Women in World Hockey rankings

A preliminary calculations, before the qualification matches start suggests the following:

13th ranked India may remain at 13th if they lose to South Africa for the 9-10th position match. If they beat SA, they climb only to the 12th spot. 12th ranked South Africa, however, doesn't get affected by this and are sure to become 11th ranked after this WC.
Currently 10th ranked USA, the only team amongst top 12 who didn't reach the WC, are sure to go down to 12th or 13th positions depending on India's performance.

8th ranked Spain and 9th ranked Japan, after their dismal performance in this WC will contest for 11-12 rank matches. If Spain wins this match, it will become 9th ranked otherwise it will be 10th ranked. For Japan, a win is a must to retain their 9th ranking or else they become 10th.

11th ranked Korea are all set to attain the 8th ranking irrespective of the result of their 5-6 ranked match against Australia. Similarly, 7th New Zealand will retain their 7th World ranking irrespective of the result of 7-8 position match against China.

5th ranked Aussies, are sure to slide to 6th position, courtsey 6th ranked England who will surely make to the 5th position. Depending on their performance, they can reach the 3rd position.

3rd ranked China, a big dissappointment in the WC, will slide to 4th or 5th position depending on England's final ranking in the WC.

1st ranked Netherlands can't go down below 2 in World Rankings. Similarly, 2nd ranked Argentina can't go below 3.
4th ranked Germany can hope to be anywhere between 2-4.
That essentially means, Netherlands or Argentina are the only teams that may emerge to be World ranked 1, after the Women's Hockey World Cup, Rosario, Argentina.

P.S.: Personally, I am a big fan of World rankings of FIH. The results of any tournaments are never drastically different from the then rankings of the participating nations.