The four Namibian umpires, who were supposed to be graded on the weekend of the PENT Netball Series, were not evaluated due to the absence of significant games. Four Namibian umpires were set to be evaluated for the Africa B award outside the PENT series by two members of the International Umpires Testing Penal - Margaret Deighan from England and Annie Kloppers from South Africa. The two were in the country to ensure that international standards were met and that the games would be officiated in accordance with the new rules, as the five participating countries competed for world rankings. There was, however, only one extra match, which took place outside the PENT series and the two officials felt that this was not sufficient to test the locals. INF's African Regional Development Manager Joan Smith said the Namibian umpires need at least two international events next year to bring their grading closer to the desired qualification and to officiate on World Championship and Commonwealth games level. She explained that it is a lengthy process to become an internationally recognised umpire. “The level of Netball is too low and because of that, they couldn't be graded. We will now look to other possibilities, such as Brutal Series in South Africa, to see if we can establish a partnership with AS and get those four umpires to SA, so that they can get more exposure to a high level of Netball games,” she concluded.