The Bangladesh national women’s cricket team has reached the ICC Women’s ODI Cricket World Cup for the first time.
More matches were scheduled to be played in Zimbabwe to determine the entrants in the 2022 tournament in New Zealand, but the ICC ended the qualifiers early due to concerns about the COVID-19 situation in Africa.
The qualification slots were decided by team ranking, meaning that Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies will progress, according to a statement from the ICC, says bdnews24.com. Sri Lanka and Ireland occupy the other two slots.
"We are incredibly disappointed to have to cancel the remainder of this event but with travel restrictions from a number of African countries being imposed at such short notice, there was a serious risk that teams would be unable to return home," said Chris Tetley, the ICC Head of Events.
"We have explored a number of options to allow us to complete the event but it isn’t feasible and we will fly the teams out of Zimbabwe as soon as possible. Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies will now qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 by virtue of their rankings, whilst Sri Lanka and Ireland will also join them in the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship," he added.
The Bangladesh team started well in the qualifiers, taking the first match against Pakistan by 3 wickets. They then thrashed the US by 270 runs, with Sharmin Akhter scoring Bangladesh’s first ever century with the bat.
But the team stumbled in their third game with a surprise loss to Thailand.