Women’s T20 World Cup pathway extended

Following the news of Brazil and Argentina’s inclusion at the ICC Women’s Qualifier Americas event and Bhutan and Myanmar joining the ICC Women’s Qualifier Asia, there have been further announcements made regarding the expansion of the women’s World Cup pathways. 

The ICC has now announced that alongside the countries previously reported on by Emerging Cricket an additional six new countries have been added to the qualification pathway. France and Turkey are joining the European qualification event while Cameroon, Botswana and Malawi joining the African pathway. In East Asia Pacific, the Philippines will be making their debut.

It has also been confirmed that Thailand, the sole Associate at the 2020 event, are guaranteed a free pass to at least the global qualifier, unlike last cycle which saw them having to progress through the ICC regional events structure.

The latest round of expansions now means that the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup qualification process will see 47 countries compete across 115 recognised T20 internationals. This is an increase of 33 matches from the pathway to the 2020 Women’s World Cup that was hosted in Australia. 

Turkey is one of the countries who are joining the qualification events and have a reported 320 registered women’s players during 2020.

When talking about the expansion Şenol Zobooglu, the international coordinator of the cricket branch of the Turkey Developing Sport Branches Federation, was quoted as saying ‘We do believe the women’s team has more chance of rising quicker than the men’s team in the next few years … The countries in which cricket is the national sport, we understand it is played dominantly by men … This is not the case in Turkey as the number of sport clubs and the players are close to an equal distribution’. 

South Africa is set to host the next edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup, another ten-team affair, from 9-16 February 2023.

Eight teams will qualify automatically; the hosts South Africa and the next top seven ranked women’s T20 teams (who competed in the 2020 event) as of 30 November 2020.

World Cup berths number nine and ten will be decided at the eight-team ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, which will see the bottom two T20I ranked sides that competed in the 2020 World Cup play against five regional qualifiers and the highest-ranked non-winner of the regional qualifiers as of 30 November 2020

These two qualifiers are expected to have to successfully navigate a similar format to the 2018 Qualifiers which saw Bangladesh and Thailand prevail; with the top two from each group of four playing crossover semi-finals which will determine the two World Cup qualifiers, as well as the finalists of the qualifying event.

All of the qualification events are scheduled to take place in 2021, with Scotland, the USA, Samoa, Malaysia and Botswana all hosting their respective region’s qualifying events.

When talking about the expansion, ICC Women’s Cricket Manager Holly Colvin reflected ‘We are delighted to be welcoming the return of cricket for ICC women’s events. This is an exciting time for women’s cricket with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 raising the bar for women’s sporting events. Sustaining and then building on the momentum from February is key and the start of the next Women’s T20 World Cup qualifying pathway is a great place to start. There is lots to look forward to in the cricket scheduled with 115 women’s T20 Internationals due to be played over seven months and five teams competing in their first ever ICC Women’s Qualifier’.

T20 World CUp Qualification events:

Event	Host	Dates	Participating Members
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier	Scotland	26 – 30 August 2021	France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Turkey
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier	USA	11 – 18 September 2021	Argentina, Brazil, Canada, USA
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup EAP Qualifier	Samoa	3-8 September 2021	Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, PNG, Samoa, Vanuatu
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier	Malaysia	20-26 September 2021	Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, UAE
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier	Botswana	October 2021	Botswana, Cameroon, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier	TBC	2022	·Bottom teams in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings as of 30 November 2021 from the teams that competed at the Australia 2020 event x2 ·One qualifier per region x5 · Highest ranked team in the regional qualifiers as of 30 November 2021 that didn’t win their regional group x1
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup	South Africa	9-26 February 2023	·South Africa as Hosts ·Top teams in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings as of 30 November 2021 from the teams that competed at the Australia 2020 event x7 ·ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers x2

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