Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov.27: Following the appearance of a new COVID-19 variation in the African zone, the ICC called off an ongoing qualifier for next year’s Women’s ODI World Cup in Harare on Saturday, allowing Pakistan, the West Indies, and Bangladesh to qualify on the basis of rankings. After the discovery of the new variety in South Africa fanned anxieties around the world, a number of African countries imposed travel restrictions. The ICC stated that the decision to cancel the event was made due to concerns about how the participating teams would return in the wake of the ascent of the Omicron variation.
The decision was made during the preliminary league round of the nine-team tournament, which was intended to determine the final three qualifiers for the World Cup 2022, which will be held in New Zealand, as well as two additional teams for the ICC Women’s Championship’s next cycle.
“The qualifiers will now be decided according to the team rankings as detailed in the tournament playing conditions. Therefore, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies will now progress to the event in New Zealand,” said the ICC in a statement.
Two of Saturday’s three matches – Zimbabwe v Pakistan and USA v Thailand – went on as planned, but the third match, between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, was cancelled when a member of the Sri Lankan team support staff tested positive for COVID-19.
“We are incredibly disappointed to have to cancel the remainder of this event but with travel restrictions from a number of African countries being imposed at such short notice there was a serious risk that teams would be unable to return home,” ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley said.
Australia, England, India, South Africa, New Zealand (hosts), Pakistan, West Indies, and Bangladesh are the teams who have qualified for the World Cup.
New Zealand will host the big event from March 4 to April 3, 2022.
“We have explored a number of options to allow us to complete the event but it isn’t feasible and we will fly the teams out of Zimbabwe as soon as possible.
“The number of teams in the third cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship (from 2022-2025) has been increased from eight to ten, and these teams will be Australia, England, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, West Indies, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Ireland,” the statement added.
