Women's World Cup postponed until 2022

Meanwhile, next year’s T20 World Cup will be hosted by India. Australia had been due to stage this autumn’s edition before it was postponed. They will now stage the 2022 competition instead

The Women’s World Cup has been postponed until 2022 as cricket looks to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision was taken by the ICC’s International Business Corporation, the business strand of the global governing body.

Next year’s tournament was due to be staged in New Zealand between February and March, but will now instead have to wait for a further year.

Meanwhile, next year’s T20 World Cup will be hosted by India. Australia had been due to stage this autumn’s edition before it was postponed. Instead, they will now stage the 2022 competition, with India – who had been scheduled to host the 2021 edition in any case – retaining their hosting rights. Teams who qualified for the 2020 tournament will take their place in 2021 without having to requalify.

ICC acting chairman Imran Khawaja said: “Over the last few months as we have considered how we return to staging global events, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in ICC events.

“The decisions the board have taken today are in the best interests of the sport, our partners and importantly our fans. I’d like to thank our partners at the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket New Zealand as well as the Australian and New Zealand governments for their continued support and commitment to a safe return to ICC events.”

ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney added: “We now have absolute clarity on the future of ICC events enabling all of our Members to focus on the rescheduling of lost international and domestic cricket. We will now proceed as planned with the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in India and host the 2022 edition in Australia.

“We have taken the decision to move the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup to give players from every competing nation, the best opportunity to be ready for the world’s biggest stage and there is still a global qualifier to complete to decide the final three teams.

“There has been no women’s international cricket played since the conclusion of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup earlier this year and due to the varying impact of Covid-19 globally that is likely to remain the situation for a number of the teams.

“Moving the event by 12 months gives all competing teams the chance to play a sufficient level of cricket ahead of both the qualification event and leading into a Cricket World Cup so the integrity of the tournament is maintained.”

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