ICC cancels Women’s World Cup qualifier due to new variant of COVID-19

The ICC has officially canceled the Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier being held in Harare on Saturday due to travel restrictions issued following the breakout of the new variant of COVID-19.

The decision was made during the preliminary league stage of the tournament, which will be played to decide the final three qualifier teams for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 to be held in New Zealand along with the two teams to compete in the next ICC Women’s Championship. Had been.

Now, the assessment of tournament playability will be decided according to the team rankings. Therefore, Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies will now take part in the event in New Zealand.

Two of the three matches scheduled for Saturday – Zimbabwe vs Pakistan and USA vs Thailand – started as scheduled, but the third match of the day between West Indies and Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka’s staff member tested positive for COVID-19. Could not play after.

ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley said, “We are incredibly disappointed to see the remainder of this tournament being canceled, but with many African countries imposing travel restrictions in such a short period of time, players are going back home. A serious problem will arise.”

“We have explored many options to complete this tournament but it is not possible and we will get the teams out of Zimbabwe as soon as possible,” he said.

Tetley further added, “Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies will now qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 based on their rankings, while Sri Lanka and Ireland will also join them in the next round of the ICC Women’s Championship.”