After placing second overall at the recent Pacific Netball Series in Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands Netball Association now wait to find out what new world ranking the Cook Islands will gain.

Cook Islands Netball Association president Patsy Hockin expects the Cook Islands could rise up to 9th place from its current 11th place world ranking after beating Samoa who are currently ranked 9th in the world.

Hockin says world netball rankings will be adjusted at the end of the World Netball Championships in Singapore early next month.

Because the Cook Islands placed poorly at the 2010 Pacific Series held here on Rarotonga the Cooks did not qualify for the world champions and the Pacific will be represented at next months event by Fiji and Samoa who placed 1st and 2nd respectively at the 2010 series.

Next years Pacific Netball series will be a crucial event for the Cook Islands as the teams that place 1st and 2nd will qualify for the next round of international netball events.

Hockin says she was impressed with the predominantly local based squad who put their bodies on the line in Papua New Guinea.

It was an even series and none of the games were one sided, says Hockin.

I think it was a great advantage to have a predominantly local-based player squad who are so passionate about the game and representing the country.

However Hockin says the Cooks main downfall was their players fitness something she says was the key factor Fiji had over the local squad.

Hockin also pointed out that Fiji netball had prior to the Pacific series received a cash injection of close to $600,000 which helped the Fiji squad tour New Zealand and Australia before taking out the tournament.

Now, Hockin says that main focus of the local netball body will be to maintain the interest of the national squad players in continuing with netball training and development for the next year.

Monthly meets and regular national squad training sessions are on the cards for local players which will include a wider training squad that will feature under 21 netballers as well.

The next World Youth Netball Championships for under 21 national squads is in 2013 and will be hosted by Scotland.

We are working on a new strategy to maintain the current national players interested in netball as well as building up our junior under 21 players and wider training squad, says Hockin.

On the international scene, Hockin says that she will be voicing the Cook Islands view on the current qualification format for the world netball championships.

She explains that the top 3 teams from each of the 5 netball regions being the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania qualify for the world championships.

Hockin says that local netball associations view is that the top 12 ranked teams in the world feature in the world championships.

On the local scene, big changes are afoot namely in the structure of netball in the Cook Islands.

A special netball meeting will be held on June 22 for all interested netballers and clubs to explain the planned new netball Cook Islands structure and the way forward for the sport.

If you have ideas, comments and views on how netball in the country should be administered then make sure you are at the special meeting.