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PULLY, Switzerland — The 2021 end-of-the-year World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Baseball World Rankings were published today. The WBSC Baseball World Rankings measure National Team performance — from U-12 to top level — in WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period. The end-of-the-year rankings reflect the expiration of all points given in 2017.
The latest WBSC Men’s Baseball World Ranking includes a total of 85 national team programmes.
Key movements include:
- Olympic champions Japan remains the top-ranked national baseball programme with 3,752 points.
- Chinese Taipei (2,966) took over second place from now No. 3 Korea (2,881).
- Mexico (2,722) surpassed the United States (2,445) to move into fourth place, its highest ever position in the WBSC Baseball World Rankings.
- WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2021 winners Venezuela gained four positions and is now sixth with 2,255 points, ahead of the Dominican Republic (2,235) and the Netherlands (2,058).
- Cuba (1,692) gained two positions and is now ninth.
- Australia (1,610), Oceania’s top ranked nation, lost three positions but remains in the top 10.
- Another relevant change comes from Colombia (1,346), who finished third at the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2021 to jump two positions to 11th.
- The Czech Republic (1,091) also gained two positions to reach its best-ever position, at 14th in the world.
- Israel (659) gained four positions and is now ranked 20th.
- Outside the top 20, Great Britain improved nine spots and is now 23rd. Croatia gained 11 positions and is now the 32nd. The biggest improvement came from world No. 40 Sweden, who climbed 33 spots.
SEE THE WBSC BASEBALL WORLD RANKINGS METHODOLOGY
There were no changes in the Women’s Baseball World Rankings. Women’s National Baseball Teams are set to return to action during the 2022 season with the World Cup’s Continental Qualifiers.
