31/07/2023 1 Minute Read

WBSC Softball World Rankings: United States stays as world No. 1 in women’s softball

World No. 2 Japan retains position, while Puerto Rico and Chinese Taipei switch in third and fourth positions. The rankings reflect the points earned from new events as per April 2023 and the expiration of points in 2019.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) released the latest World Rankings for Women’s Softball with the United States retaining pole position with 4,900 points from among 65 softball programmes.

The WBSC Softball World Rankings measure national team performance from the U-12 to the top level in WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period including the recent WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Group Stages and the U-15 Women’s Softball Asia Cup.

The rankings also reflect the expiration of points in 2019 going back four years such as the Women's Softball Asian Championship 2019 and Women's Softball European Championship 2019.

Women’s Softball World Rankings in detail

WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Group A winners the United States and Group C winners Japan (3,201 points) retained their positions as No. 1 and No. 2 in the World Rankings while Group B winner Puerto Rico and Chinese Taipei switched positions this time, the former taking the No. 3 spot with 3,096 points and the latter moving down to No. 4 with 2,812 points.

Canada and Mexico also retained their positions at fifth and sixth, respectively, followed by Australia moving up two places to No. 7.

European programmes Italy, Netherlands and Czech Republic are in eighth to 10th positions. Italy stayed at No. 8, while the Netherlands moved one place up and Czech Republic moved three places down in the rankings.

Positions 11 to 20 have seen a lot of movement in the ranking, as No. 11 China, No. 12 Spain and No. 17 Ireland held on to their positions, while five programmes, namely Great Britain, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil and Peru have all moved up the rankings.

Cuba made the biggest jump, moving 14 positions to No. 14 followed by Curacao (up 13) and Botswana (up 11), while Israel and Germany moved six and five positions down No. 19 and 20, respectively.