International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced a string of changes in the scheduling of the regional qualification tournaments to be held across the Asian and African regions. The decision was taken due to new restrictions being put in place by several participating countries to suspend sporting activities to limit the spread of the new COVID-19 variants therefore giving no opportunity for teams to sufficiently train.
The other contributing factor was the extensive quarantine requirements for the visiting teams on their return to their respective countries. It takes a good amount of time and capital to create a bio-secure environments, which will be a strenuous process for Associate members.
The Asia A Qualifier for the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 was due to be hosted between 03rd – 09th April 2021 involving Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Qatar and Saudi Arabia has now been postponed and will be played in Kuwait between 23rd – 29th October 2021.
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup sub-regional Africa A and B Qualifiers due to take place in South Africa in April 2021, have been rescheduled to 25th – 31st October 2021. Qualifier A involves Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland and Uganda and Qualifier B includes Botswana, Cameroon, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, St Helena and Tanzania.
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier is now confirmed to take place between 24th – 27th November in Nigeria involving Kenya, Nigeria, and the top teams from the sub-regional Africa A and B Qualifiers respectively to allow sufficient time for the sub-regional qualifiers to be completed.
In addition, the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Asia Division 2 has been cancelled as Thailand are unable to host due to COVID-19 restrictions and there is no other suitable hosting option. Bhutan, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Thailand were confirmed to participate in the Division 2 event. Oman and Singapore have now been promoted to the U19 Men’s CWC Asia Qualifier scheduled in September in the United Arab Emirates, as a result of both teams having the best records in the previous five editions of the U19 Men’s CWC qualifiers.
The ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Africa Division 2 Qualifier has been postponed to 07th – 13th August from June 2021 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions where hosts Tanzania, Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sierra Leone will all compete for two ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Africa Qualifier spots. The dates for the U19 Men’s CWC Africa Qualifier have been confirmed as 25th September to 01st October and will be hosted by Nigeria with Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda also competing for one spot in the West Indies in early 2022.
The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier which is a qualifying tournament to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 has been rescheduled from October to 03rd – 11th September 2021 to ease regional calendar congestion involving hosts Botswana, Cameroon, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
