Indian women qualify for 2021 World Cup

Indian women players celebrate their victory over New Zealand in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup match. File

India on Wednesday sealed its qualification for the 2021 Women’s World Cup following the cancellation of the ODI Championship round against Pakistan with the BCCI not getting the government clearance to play the latter.

The India-Pakistan round was scheduled to take place between July and November last year but was always subject to government clearance. Both teams will share points for the cancelled three-match series.

“With respect to the India v Pakistan series, the Technical Commitee concluded that the series could not be played because of a

Force Majeure event after the BCCI demonstrated that it was unable to obtain the necessary government clearances to allow India to participate in the bilateral series against Pakistan, which forms a part of the ICC Women’s Championship,” said the ICC in a statement.

The development means that India, which finished runner-up in the 2017 edition, has secured its berth for the event in New Zealand.

Format

All eight teams in the 2017-2020 edition of the ICC Women’s Championship were to play each other in a three-match series.

“Australia (37 points), England (29), South Africa (25) and now India (23) have qualified by virtue of being the top four. Pakistan (19), New Zealand (17), West Indies (13) and Sri Lanka (5) complete the table,” the statement added.