KINGSTON, Jamaica — The International Netball Federation (INF) has sought to clarify its methodology used to calculate Netball World Rankings, after the Senior Sunshine Girls cited concerns that their participation in the upcoming Caribbean Netball Championships might hurt the team’s international ranking.

The Jamaican team, which is the highest ranked in the tournament and fourth in the world with 149 ratings, said they pulled out of the August 19-26 championship because, based on analyses, they could lose up to five ratings points even if they play unbeaten.

However, in a release today from the INF said that winning a match always improves a team’s rating while losing will lower that rating.

The INF outlined in its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about rankings that, a team will get more points for beating an opponent with a high rating and get fewer points for losing to a team with a low rating.

The federation outlined that only two factors contribute to ranking points — the result of the match and the opponent against whom the result was achieved.

No account is taken of margin of victory, venue, importance of the match, nor the winner of the series — all internationals are treated as stand-alone events, it said.

“The impact of any win/loss on your ranking will depend on how your new rating compares with the ratings of the teams around you,” INF added.

It further explained that: “If a team wins a match they will earn 50 points more than their opponent’s rating. But if they lose, they will earn 50 points less than their opponent’s rating.”

Meanwhile, “a slightly different rule applies if the teams are more than 40 rating points apart. In this case, for the purposes of determining the points earned, you assume your opponent was separated by exactly 40 points,” INF revealed.

It assured that if one team beats another the winner will always benefit in terms of ranking points.