The International Cricket Council announced that the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021 in Harare has been called due to the introduction of travel restrictions from a number of African countries, including the host country Zimbabwe, following the breakout of a new COVID-19 variant in southern Africa.
The decision was taken during the preliminary league phase of the nine-team tournament, that was to decide the final three qualifiers for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, to be played in New Zealand, as well as two additional teams for the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship.
The six Sri Lankan players and one supporting staff member tested positive for Covid 19 and the team is already in the Hotel and expected to come back soon. However all other teams yesterday left after this tournament was officially called off on Saturday. Meanwhile Sri Lanka Cricket already discussed with authorities to send back Sri Lanka team on a special flight, said SLC CEO Ashley de Silva.
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 and for the first time Sri Lanka couldn't qualify for the World Cup this is mainly due to lack of matches to improve their rankings.
Two of the three matches scheduled for Saturday – Zimbabwe v Pakistan and USA v Thailand – started as scheduled but the third fixture of the day, between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, could not be staged as a member of the Sri Lanka team support staff tested positive for COVID-19. the West Indies team previously agreed to play this game but at the last minute they refused to play.
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