With strict COVID-19 quarantine rules in place for visiting teams in Malaysia, UAE has now emerged as the new host of the Women’s Asia region qualifiers in the month of November 2021 towards Women’s T20 World Cup global qualifiers. The matches in the tournament will take place at the ICC Academy grounds in Dubai from November 22nd – 28th, 2021.
Women’s squads from Bhutan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Nepal will be competing in a 6-nation tournament, from which the top team will qualify for the global qualifiers, and there will be opportunity for the team finishing second as well, as the final position in the 8-nation global qualifiers will be filled by the highest ranked team in the regional qualifiers on the November cut-off date, who missed out on topping their regional event table (As of now, Ireland Women most likely to take the place).
Thailand Women were the winners of the Asian qualifiers held in Thailand in 2019, from which they progressed to the Global qualifiers in Scotland in 2019 and claimed one of the two spots on offer to take part in their maiden appearance in Women’s T20 World Cup held in 2020 in Australia. Women’s national squads probable’s in Kuwait and Bhutan have also begun their preparations for the qualifiers with inter-squad matches taking place in their countries respectively. The Bhutanese team have returned back to training at the Gelephu International Cricket Ground as on 09th September, having had sessions at the at the Indian Embassy ground in the past couple of weeks, while Nepal Women and Hong Kong Women squad for the tournament has been announced by the respective cricket boards.
2021 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifiers Schedule (local timings)
22nd November 2021: UAE Women vs Malaysia Women @9am (Scorecard) ; Hong Kong Women vs Nepal Women @9am (Scorecard) ; Bhutan Women vs Kuwait Women @1:10pm (Scorecard)
23rd November 2021: Hong Kong Women vs UAE Women @9am (Scorecard) ; Malaysia Women vs Kuwait Women @1:10pm (Scorecard) ; Nepal Women vs Bhutan Women @1:10pm (Scorecard)
25th November 2021: Malaysia Women vs Hong Kong Women @9am (Scorecard) ; Bhutan Women vs UAE Women @9am (Scorecard) ; Kuwait Women vs Nepal Women @1:10pm (Scorecard)
26th November 2021: Nepal Women vs Malaysia Women @9am (Scorecard) ; Hong Kong Women vs Bhutan Women @1:10pm (Scorecard) ; UAE Women vs Kuwait Women @1:10pm (Scorecard)
28th November 2021: UAE Women vs Nepal Women @9am (Scorecard) ; Malaysia Women vs Bhutan Women @9am (Scorecard) ; Kuwait Women vs Hong Kong Women @1:10pm (Scorecard)
The host’s, Emirates Cricket, were able to organize preparation series for the UAE Women team ahead of the tournament, as the Sky Club Women team from Sri Lanka came for their tour and played a series comprising of six (6) matches in the T20 format at the Ajman Cricket oval ground from November 06th – 13th, 2021.
The team also played couple of unofficial warm-up matches on 18th and 19th November against Bhutan Women squad, who are also competing in the qualifiers, and these matches were the first competitive matches for Bhutan squad since South Asian Games in Nepal in December 2019.
Sky Club Women Team tour of UAE Schedule
06th November 2021: Sky Club Women vs UAE Women (T20 – Scorecard)
07th November 2021: Sky Club Women vs UAE Women (T20 – Scorecard)
10th November 2021: Sky Club Women vs UAE Women (T20 – Scorecard)
11th November 2021: Sky Club Women vs UAE Women (T20 – Scorecard)
12th November 2021: Sky Club Women vs UAE Women (T20 – Scorecard)
13th November 2021: Sky Club Women vs UAE Women (T20 – Scorecard)
18th November 2021: UAE Women vs Bhutan Women (T20 – Scorecard)
19th November 2021: UAE Women vs Bhutan Women (T20 – Scorecard)
