ICC women’s World Cup organizers confirm that the tournament will go ahead with nine players in a team in order to keep the competition going if COVID-19 disrupts plans and plays spoilsport.
As per ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 Schedule, the tournament will kickstart from March 4, 2022, with the match between New Zealand Women and West Indies Women at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui.
CHECK: Women’s World Cup 2022 Live Streaming and Telecast Channels
What if COVID19 Hits Women’s WC 2022
The International Cricket Council (ICC) head of events Chris Tetley on Thursday (February 24) confirmed certain plans if COVID-19 manages to disrupt plans for any team in the tournament.
Right after every match check out the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 Points Table to get the updated news on teams’ standings.
“If it becomes necessary we would allow a team to field nine players as an exception for this environment,” Tetley said.
“And if they had female substitutes from within their management team, we would allow two substitutes to play – non-batting, non-bowling – to enable a game to take place.”
Teams had already been permitted to bring up to three travelling reserves with them for the tournament who can be switched in and out of the main 15-player squads if anyone contracts Covid.
Tetley added that rescheduling fixtures would be considered if needed, although said there were “logistical constraints” around the tournament.
“We’ll be asking teams to show maximum flexibility and we’ll be as flexible as possible if the need arises to fulfil our objective, which is to get the games on,” he said.
New Zealand is currently experiencing a steep rise in Covid-19 cases since the Omicron variant got into the community with more than 6000 reported on Thursday.
The country is operating under a ‘red’ setting of a traffic light system which severely reduces attendance at sports evenings, but tournament CEO Andrea Nelson said that they were hopeful of being able to have small numbers of spectators at group matches.
“Under the red traffic light setting we can currently operate in pods of 100. We are taking it week-by-week as we work our way through, but in the first week it is likely there will be some availability at matches,” she said.
“Unfortunately, at some venues we will have to cancel existing ticket holders. That’s not something we want to do, and we are working really hard to see how many people we can get into the stadiums.”
The tournament begins on March 4 when hosts New Zealand face West Indies in Mount Maunganui.
