CHENNAI NOV. 3. India has been ranked sixth in the first-ever official World rankings released by the International Hockey Federation. The women's team, which won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, has been rated 13.

World champions, Germany and Argentina, top the table for men and women respectively.

The ranking system determines the pool composition of major FIH and Continental Federation events and their qualifiers. In future, further comparisons of relative strengths of internationally active countries will be published at regular intervals and at the end of each set of related events (Olympic Games, World Cups, Champions Trophy and Challengers, Continental championships).

The methodology for calculating the World rankings is based on final rankings of the teams at Olympic Games, FIH world-level events, Continental championships and qualifying events of these tournaments. Separate rankings are made for men and women and the points for Continental Federation events will be included to reflect the varying standards/participation that currently exist between the five Continental Federations.

The ranking system reflects both current and past performances. However, results from the past will be progressively less weighted year by year (25% discount per year over a four-year cycle) and finally deleted from the calculations.

The system ensures that, as far as rankings are concerned, success at a single tournament, even the Olympic Games or World Cup, will not be sufficient to make up for the poor form in the preceding 3-4 years, and vice-versa. The ranking system proposes to truly reflect a team's performance over a four-year cycle.

Peter Cohen, FIH Secretary-General, said: 'The introduction of the FIH World ranking system is a positive step which will contribute to hockey's profile, and a credit to the FIH Events and Competitions Committee. The FIH World ranking is not as complex as some systems used by other sports because it was decided, when specifically applied to hockey, the rankings would be more accurate if there's focus on performances at major tournaments.

'Our sport will, undoubtedly, benefit from the addition of these statistics plus the qualification for major tournaments will be more logical, transparent and easier to understand.'

The top-20:

Men: 1. Germany (1928 points); 2. Netherlands (1805); 3. Australia (1800); 4. Korea (1448); 5. Pakistan (1390); 6. India (1224); 7. Argentina (1068); 8. England (1008); 9. Spain (851); 10. Malaysia (793); 11. New Zealand (690); 12. Japan (525); 13. South Africa (478); 14. Belgium (455); 15. Canada (450); 16. Egypt (431); 17. Poland (413); 18. Cuba (375) and France 375 and 20. Scotland (300).

Women: 1. Argentina (1854); 2. Netherlands (1778); 3. Australia (1691); 4. China (1635); 5. England (1183); 6. Korea (1073); 7. Spain (1058); 8. Germany (1025); 9. New Zealand (946); 10. United States (738); 11. Japan (730); 12. South Africa (649); 13. India (493); 14. Ireland (410); 15. Ukraine (405); 16. Scotland (400); 17. Russia (330); 18. Uruguay (304); 19. France (293) and 20. Canada (223).

Article courtesy of The Hindu