ICC Women’s World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe cancelled due to Covid-related uncertainty

ICC Women’s World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe cancelled due to Covid-related uncertainty

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By SportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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The ICC on Saturday announced that the Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021 in Zimbabwe has been called off following concerns over the new Coornaviurs variant in South Africa. The qualifiers will now be decided according to the team rankings as detailed in the tournament playing conditions.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to abandon the 2021 Women’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers in Harare due to the emergence of the latest Covid-19 variant in South Africa, and the introduction of travel restrictions from a number of African countries including Zimbabwe. The qualifier was scheduled to decide the final three qualifiers for the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022, to be played in New Zealand, and two teams for the next cycle of the ICC Women's Championship.

The abandonment of the tournament will help Bangladesh, West Indies, and Pakistan to get a direct entry to the Women's World Cup next year in New Zealand courtesy of the team rankings. Also, Sri Lanka and Ireland have occupied slots for the 2022-25 cycle of ICC Women’s Championship.

ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley said that they are disappointed for cancelling the event but that the move was necessary as travel restrictions form certain african countries would have created problems for teams in returning home.

"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," said Chris Tetley.

"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. Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies will now qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 by virtue of their rankings, whilst Sri Lanka and Ireland will also join them in the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship.”

Two out of the three matches scheduled on Saturday were played according to the decided time. However , the third match of the day between Sri Lanka and West Indies could not happen as member of the Sri Lanka team support staff tested positive for Covid-19. 

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