Pakistan women’s team has qualified for the upcoming ICC Women’s ODI Cricket World Cup after the qualifiers for the tournament were abandoned due to the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, ‘Omicron’.
The qualifiers which were taking place in Zimbabwe had to be called off as the new COVID-19 variant struck Southern Africa, including the host nation, Zimbabwe. The International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to abandon the qualifiers as the teams participating in the competition would not have been able to travel back home due to the travel restrictions.
ICC’s head of events, Chris Tetley said, “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.”
ICC revealed that Pakistan alongside West Indies and Bangladesh will move on to play in the Women’s World Cup due to their ranking in comparison to their competitors. Sri Lanka and Ireland have also qualified for other slots for the 2022-25 cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship.
The qualifiers were well underway but the tournament was called off after six members of Sri Lanka’s squad tested positive for COVID-19. Pakistan had registered two victories in three matches so far, beating Zimbabwe and Thailand.