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The World Baseball Softball Confederation has launched the first-ever world rankings for men’s and women’s fastpitch softball and has revealed the latest standings in its official baseball world rankings.
Softball rankings are based on the performances of Senior and Junior (Under-19) national teams in World Championships over a three-year period.
Baseball rankings are arrived at by a much more complicated set of criteria which weigh the performance of national teams in five different age categories across a wide range of world and regional competitions.
The results show that GB is ranked 10th out of 18 listed countries in men’s fastpitch; tied for 14th place out of 22 listed countries in women’s fastpitch and ranked 33rd out of 70 listed countries in baseball.
Leaders
Japan is at the top of the rankings in both women’s fastpitch softball and baseball, and fifth in men’s fastpitch, while the USA is second in women’s fastpitch and baseball and tied for seventh in men’s fastpitch.
Australia is ranked third in both fastpitch disciplines but only 13th in baseball, while Canada is second in men’s fastpitch, fourth in women’s fastpitch and eighth in baseball.
After winning the recent Premier12 Global Baseball Championship, Korea has climbed to fourth position in the baseball rankings, but is not ranked in either men’s or women’s softball.
The highest-ranked European countries across all three disciplines are the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The Netherlands is listed as seventh in women’s fastpitch, 15th in men’s fastpitch and 10th in baseball while the Czech Republic is tied for seventh in men’s fastpitch, and is 10th in women’s fastpitch and 16th in baseball. Italy is shown as ninth in both women’s fastpitch and baseball, but does not have a men’s fastpitch ranking.
GB comes next after the Netherlands and the Czech Republic in Europe across all three formats.
Softball rankings
The WBSC Softball Competitions Commission was recently tasked with reviewing, developing and introducing an initial world ranking system, and will continue to study the best method for expanding the rankings to include multi-sport events, regional championships, head-to-heads and other WBSC-recognised international competitions in which its 141 members worldwide participate.
WBSC Softball Division President Dale McMann said: "These new softball world rankings mark another major milestone in the history of our global sport. They not only provide a benchmarking tool for nations to construct and evaluate their strategic and development plans, but they also give the players and fans a new and exciting way to express the pride of their country through sport."
Baseball rankings
The WBSC baseball world rankings reflect a four-year cycle and a data set of more than 1,000 international competitions dating back to 2012.
Ranked Number 1 since November 2014, Japan, with 5,154 points, remains the top-ranked baseball power, while the United States remains in second place with 5,091 points. The US has pulled to within 63 ranking points of the top spot, having defended its world titles at the U-12 and U-18 Baseball World Cups in 2015, while placing second at the 2015 Pan-Am Games and in the Premier12 Championship, which awards the most ranking points of any international competition.
Chinese Taipei has moved up from fourth position to third, a historical high for the nation.
Meanwhile, four countries have made their debut in the WBSC world rankings: Estonia, India, Iraq and Singapore.
When the Great Britain Baseball Team travels to Brooklyn, New York this September to compete in a World Baseball Classic Qualifier, they will be facing 14th-ranked Brazil, 23rd-ranked Pakistan and 43rd-ranked Israel.
Full rankings
Here are the WBSC world rankings in full, including placings and points:
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Men’s Fastpitch
1 – New Zealand (1340)
2 – Canada (1220)
3 – Australia (1140)
4 – Venezuela (1080)
5 – Japan (980)
6 – Argentina (940)
7 – USA (720)
Czech Republic (720)
9 – Mexico (540)
10 – Great Britain (460)
11 – Denmark (220)
12 – Samoa (200)
13 – Philippines (160)
14 – Colombia (140)
15 – Netherlands (120)
16 – South Africa (100)
17 – Indonesia (20)
Singapore (20)
Women’s Fastpitch
1 – Japan (1560)
2 – USA (1500)
3 – Australia (1300)
4 – Canada (1280)
5 – Chinese Taipei (1080)
6 – China (920)
7 – Netherlands (880)
8 – New Zealand (820)
9 – Italy (760)
10 – Czech Republic (620)
11 – Puerto Rico (560)
12 – Cuba (420)
13 – Dominican Republic (300)
14 – Great Britain (240)
Mexico (240)
Russia (240)
17 – Botswana (180)
18 – Brazil (120)
19 – Venezuela (100)
Argentina (100)
21 – South Africa (40)
22 – Colombia (20)
Baseball
1 – Japan (5154)
2 – USA (5091)
3 – Chinese Taipei (4702)
4 – Korea (4641)
5 – Cuba (3727)
6 – Venezuela (2833)
7 – Mexico (2792)
8 – Canada (2659)
9 – Italy (2297)
10 – Netherlands (2096)
11 – Puerto Rico (1759)
12 – Dominican Republic (1559)
13 – Australia (1482)
14 – Brazil (1279)
15 – Nicaragua (1129)
16 – Czech Republic (1087)
17 – Panama (777)
18 – China (762)
19 – Germany (660)
20 – Colombia (659)
21 – Spain (494)
22 – Argentina (471)
23 – Pakistan (400)
24 – Hong Kong (398)
25 – Russia (321)
26 – France (264)
27 – Honduras (246)
28 – Philippines (235)
29 – Sweden (227)
30 – New Zealand (218)
31 – Ukraine (198)
32 – Aruba (194)
33 – Great Britain (185)
34 – Belgium (171)
35 – Lithuania (161)
36 – Thailand (160)
37 – Greece (155)
38 – Croatia (153)
39 – Austria (137)
40 – South Africa (132)
41 – Guatemala (130)
42 – Indonesia (111)
43 – Israel (104)
44 – Slovakia (102)
45 – Bulgaria (88)
46 – Belarus (75)
47 – Sri Lanka (74)
48 – Peru (72)
49 – Slovenia (60)
50 – Switzerland (56)
51 – Iran (55)
52 – Poland (49)
53 – Ireland (46)
54 – Romania (37)
55 – Finland (34)
56 – Mongolia (33)
57 – Ecuador (23)
58 – Singapore (21)
59 – India (20)
60 – Latvia (19)
61 – Hungary (13)
Bolivia (13)
63 – Chile (10)
64 – Norway (9)
Afghanistan (9)
66 – Curacao (7)
Estonia (7)
68 – Iraq (5)
Myanmar (5)
70 – Nepal (1)