In news sure to delight fans of the Associate game, the ICC board has approved an expansion to the Women’s T20 World Cup at the recently concluded annual conference in Colombo.
In a press release, the governing body stated that the expansion reaffirms its commitment to the growth of women’s cricket on a global scale. The decision will see the biennial tournament expand to 16 teams from the 2030 edition, an increase of six berths compared to the upcoming 10-team 2024 World Cup.
Although the 2026 event is already on a growth path with the inclusion of two additional teams making it a 12-nation tournament, many in the Associate world have bemoaned the slow nature of expansion. Especially as this year’s T20 World Cup for women is set to feature only half as many teams as last month’s 20 team jamboree for men.
Regardless, the expansion from 2030 onwards provides plenty of renewed incentives to teams on the qualification periphery. Nations which have never previously participated in a senior women’s T20 World Cup, such as Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Uganda, Namibia and Nepal, will now have a realistic chance to qualify. Furthermore, it also opens up qualification pathways to teams ranked below such as Indonesia, Rwanda and Brazil who have specifically prioritised and focused on development through women’s cricket.
The final tournament structure and qualification pathways are yet to determined and will be confirmed by ICC at a future date.
East Asia-Pacific region loses its automatic spot
In other news, ICC’s Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) confirmed the allocation of eight regional qualifying spots for the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup. While a similar number of spots have been retained for Europe (2), Africa (2) and Americas (1), the East Asia-Pacific (EAP) region lost its sole automatic qualification spot. Instead, EAP teams will now compete in a combined Asia and EAP regional final for the three World Cup spots. Previously, Asia was allocated two spots and EAP one.
It is bad news for PNG who had strolled the EAP Regional Finals last year to make the 2024 T20 World Cup. They, alongside winners of the two Sub-regional qualifiers, will now have to fight it out with the likes of Nepal, Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Hong Kong and Malaysia in a tough qualification event. Asia is by far the most competitive region in world cricket with other Middle Eastern teams like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar also making rapid strides in development in recent times.
Although, the Barramundis can take solace from the fact that they have notched up wins over Nepal, Malaysia, Oman and Hong Kong in previous T20I encounters.
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