đ The Week in International Sport
Monday January 26th: men's water polo, Fiji in rugby sevens and Abhishek Sharma
This year at Plot the Ball, Iâm using data to try and better understand the landscape of international team sport. For some background to this project â which Iâm calling âRank the Nationsâ â you can read my introductory post here.
In todayâs edition of The Week in International Sport:
đˇđ¸ Serbia winning a European title in menâs water polo
đ Chart of the week: assessing Fijiâs trajectory in menâs rugby sevens
âŞď¸ Highlight of the week: Abhishek Sharmaâs statement of intent
đ A few other interesting things I learned
As a reminder: the team ratings used in this newsletter are on a zero-to-10 scale, and are calculated based on a nationâs performance in competitive fixtures in a given sport since the start of the 2022 calendar year. (For more detail, click here.)
đˇđ¸ Serbia win the 2026 Menâs European Water Polo Championship
In yesterdayâs final of the Menâs European Water Polo Championship were two of the most decorated nations in the competitionâs history: Serbia and Hungary. In recent years, though, both have been overshadowed by other continental rivals.
This situation is a good example of these rankings providing a valuable alternative slant on the landscape of a sport. Menâs water polo has typically been dominated by European countries, and the continentâs major tournament has just concluded; however, none of the four top-rated teams according to my âRank the Nationsâ model reached the final. In fact, there is daylight between Spain (7.2) and the two teams behind them â Greece (6.6) and Italy (6.6), both losing semi-finalists last week.
What happened to the defending world and European champions in this tournament? They were drawn in a pool with eventual winners Serbia (5.9) and runners-up Hungary (6.3); all three teams â as well as Montenegro (4.9) â finished that stage with three wins out of five, and Spain had comfortably the best goal difference overall. However, Hungary pipped them in a shootout in their last pool match, and they didnât qualify for the final four. It seems that water polo is a funny old game, too.
đ Chart of the week: Are Fiji on a downward trajectory in menâs sevens?
You canât talk about rugby sevens without talking about Fiji. The Melanesian island nation has won all four of its Olympic medals in the sport that was introduced in 2016: a bronze in the womenâs event in Tokyo, to go with two golds and a silver in the menâs.
That silver came in Paris, where they were comprehensively beaten by hosts France. Are they on track to reclaim the top spot in the menâs game in a couple of yearsâ time? Not if their performances on World Rugbyâs sevens circuit are anything to go by: the team has been on a downward trajectory for a number of years. During 2022, they were responsible for 68% of all of the points scored in their competitive matches; this figure fell to around 60% for 2023 and 2024, and further to 56% during 2025.
Ahead of this weekendâs event in Singapore, they have the sportâs third-best rating â 6.6, behind New Zealand (6.7) and Argentina (6.8). However, it is worth noting the unusual lack of dispersion in the performance levels of competing nations last year. This hints at how competition structure can influence such a rating system; the annual âSVNSâ series was reduced from 12 teams to eight midway through 2025. With fewer matches against weaker opponents, itâs harder for top teams to separate themselves.
âŞď¸ Highlight of the week: Abhishek Sharmaâs statement of intent
As we saw last week, India arenât currently dominating menâs test cricket. Theyâve been exceptionally strong in the two white-ball formats in recent years, though â and Abhishek Sharma is one of the drivers of their remarkable record in T20I cricket.
The ultra-aggressive left-handed batter has featured in 34 matches so far in his international career, and his team have won 29 of them. Abhishekâs commitment to attacking cricket is remarkable. In the second match of their current bilateral series against New Zealand, he was caught on the boundary off the first delivery he faced. In the third match yesterday, he was undeterred. At the very beginning of his innings, the opener advanced down the pitch and launched the ball well beyond the rope.
You can watch a replay of this shot on the BCCI website here.
đ What else I learned last week
For The Athletic, Chris Weatherspoon broke down Deloitteâs recent report into the finances of some of the top clubs in womenâs soccer. As on the menâs side, England is the biggest market in the European game. (Seven of the top 10 clubs by annual revenues come from the WSL.) The drivers of income are different, though. Broadcast deals helped the Premier League surge to the top; âfor womenâs teams, it is sponsorship deals and partnerships doing the heavy liftingâ.
For the Financial Times, Daniel Thomas and Samuel Agini reported on the NFLâs plan to kickstart growth outside the USA. The Head of NFL International told the paper: âNobodyâs interested if you just show up once a year, have a game and then leaveâ. Flag football â which is set to debut at the Olympics in 2028 â is one key plank, and franchises are encouraged to pursue their own marketing campaigns: â[t]he New York Jets, for example, run a girlsâ flag league in the UKâ.
At NHL.com, Mike Morreale published a profile of Albert Ĺ mits â an 18-year-old from Latvia who will be the youngest menâs ice hockey player at the Winter Olympics. (He may also become the highest-ever Latvian NHL Draft pick later this year.) With experience in Finlandâs top menâs league, Ĺ mits wonât face as much of an adjustment as other teenagers might; Morreale notes that the defender âaverages 19:58 of ice time in 33 games with Jukurit this seasonâ.
The next edition of the newsletter will be published on Monday February 2nd.
