International Cricket Council (ICC) have confirmed that the Asia Qualifiers to the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup have been cancelled due to COVID-19. Earlier, Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) were awarded the hosting rights for the Asian region division 1 qualification pathway tournament towards 2022 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in West Indies, after the division 2 event comprising U19 team’s from Bhutan, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Thailand were cancelled by ICC due to COVID-19 pandemic. Singapore and Oman had been given the spots in Division 1 event based on previous results for the teams.
UAE U19 have been given the opportunity to take part in the 2022 edition, based on securing the most wins in the last five U19 qualifying events in the Asian region. UAE qualified from the previous edition of the Asia Division 1 qualifiers held in Malaysia, after edging past Nepal on DLS method on the first day of the competition and remained unbeaten thereafter to book their spot in the 2020 U19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley said: “It is incredibly disappointing that the regional qualifiers to the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup have been cancelled due to COVID-19. Under the Member approved guidelines, where teams have withdrawn due to the impact caused by the pandemic, we had no other alternative but to cancel these events. We have worked closely with all Members to try to ensure results can be determined on the field of play, however for these events it was not possible.”
The division 1 tournament was scheduled to take place in September 2021 in UAE, with the host’s competing against Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Kuwait and Oman. Nepal, Kuwait and UAE are also scheduled to take part in ACC (Asian Cricket Council) U19 Asia Cup, currently scheduled to take place in December 2021.
