The cricket fever returns as Qualifiers begin today for the inaugural edition of ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup. Luckily, this comes a few days after the IPL Final, so cricket fans will have something to get themselves busy with again.
The T20 World Cup will be taking place in South Africa from January 2023. The qualifiers for the same begin today. This is going to be a great platform for these young women as they can carve a niche for themselves with their performances. The Senior National team is of course another milestone that becomes more feasible when you do well in the U19 World Cup.
The World Cup was initially set to begin in 2021 but was rescheduled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The event will take place ahead of the Women’s T20 World Cup which is going to commence in February of 2023 in South Africa itself. The tournament will include 11 full member nations. Teams such as Bangladesh, West Indies, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, South Africa, England, India, Australia, and Ireland are already confirmed as automatic qualifiers.
USA has been automatically gifted the fifth spot as they are the only associate nation eligible to compete under ICC’s Event Pathway Participation Criteria in the American region. There are additional four spots that will be determined by a regional qualification process where 19 teams across four regions will face each other and the winner of each of these encounters will confirm their place in the World Cup.
The first of the four regional matches takes place in Malaysia where venues like Kinrara Oval, and Universiti Kebangsaan will play host to the first qualification event of the World Cup. Between 3-9 June 15 matches will be played and there will be 6 teams that will compete to get qualified namely Bhutan, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, Qatar, and UAE.
Asia Regional Development Manager Aminul Islam gave his statement about the upcoming Qualifier and said, “We are embarking on a very exciting journey where we will see some of the most promising young female talent in Asia competing in Malaysia this week. The participating teams are all hopeful of making history by competing at the first-ever ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup, and there’s no question we will see some excellent cricket take place to determine who qualifies.”
“We are embarking on a very exciting journey where we will see some of the most promising young female talent in Asia competing in Malaysia this week.”
-Aminul Islam, Asia Regional Developent Manager
Two teams will play the East Asia-Pacific (EAP) Qualifier in July, two will play for the Europe Qualifier in August and the rest will be held in September as there are 9 teams competing for the Africa Qualifier.
This World Cup will also play a huge role in carrying forward ICC’s 100% Cricket Year of Women’s Cricket initiative which aims in making Women’s Cricket as mainstream as their male counterparts.
