India Qualified for ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021
The ICC Women’s Championship Technical Committee (TC) has decided that teams will share points in all three series in the ICC Women’s Championship that did not take place during the competition window due to coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. The two other ICC Women’s Championship series also cancelled due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. South African women were to host Australia and Sri Lanka women’s were to host White Ferns in the last round of matches.
In respect of the India women v Pakistan women series, the ICC Women’s Championship Technical Committee (TC) concluded the bilateral series could not be played after the BCCI explained that it was unable to obtain the necessary government of India’s (GOI) clearances to allow Indian women team to participate in the bilateral series against Pakistan that forms part of the ICC Women’s Championship. The India vs Pakistan series was originally scheduled in the sixth round of the competition from July to November 2019, but despite the best efforts of both Boards, it was unable to take place.
All eight teams in the 2017-2020 edition of the ICC Women’s
- Championship plays each other in the three-match series.
- The host of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021, New Zealand, and the next four highest-placed teams on the points table qualify directly for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021.
- Australia (37 points), England (29), South Africa (25), and now India (23) have qualified by virtue of being the top four.
- Pakistan (19), New Zealand (17), West Indies (13) and Sri Lanka (5) completed the table.
- The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier is scheduled to be played from July 03 to July 19 in Sri Lanka, this is subject to review due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The 10 teams vying for the three remaining places in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 will be the hosts, Sri Lanka, along with Pakistan and West Indies from the ICC Women’s Championship, the two other teams with ODI status, Bangladesh and Ireland, and the winners of the five regional qualifiers – Thailand (Asia), Zimbabwe (Africa), Papua New Guinea (East Asia Pacific), United States of America (Americas) and the Netherlands (Europe).
Pakistan women’s captain Bismah Maroof called the decision “deeply disappointing”, remarking it was “good luck” for India to have effectively been awarded points for nothing. The ICC decision means Pakistan misses out on automatic qualification for the 2021 Women’s World Cup.
Maroof Says:
The decision was very disappointing because we had been waiting for a long time to play against India and the board was working towards it, But we weren’t getting any response from India. It’s good luck for India, who got points without agreeing to play any matches. I suppose if we look at it in a positive light, we’ll get a few extra competitive matches having to play the qualifying rounds.
There’s always hype when we’re due to play India and the fans want to see those matches because they’re usually very exciting. Pakistan showed a willingness to play against India, and Pakistan has kept sport away from politics. So it was very disappointing for us not to get these matches, and we were number four, in a position to qualify directly before the matches were due to go ahead. If we had lost those matches and then had to qualify, that would have been easy to accept. But as things stand, those matches will have been missed by all cricket fans, not just Pakistan fans. The PCB’s legal team is reviewing the decision as things stand. If they think there are grounds for a legal case, we should definitely proceed with one. It was very disappointing, and politics and sport should be kept separate.
