India qualify for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021

Dubai, April 15:  India on Wednesday qualified for the 2021 Women's World Cup after the cancellation of their ODI Championship round against arch-rivals Pakistan with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) not getting government clearance to play them.

The India-Pakistan series was originally scheduled in the sixth round of the competition, between July and November 2019, but despite the best efforts of both the boards, it was unable to take place, ICC said in a statement.

"With respect to the India vs Pakistan series, the TC 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," the media statement read.

The 2021 World Cup will be held in New Zealand. India finished runners-up in the 2017 edition.

Both India and Pakistan only play in ICC events due to diplomatic tensions between the two nations.

"The ICC Women's Championship Technical Committee (TC) has decided that teams will share points in all three series in the ICC Women's Championship that did not take place during the competition window," the statement said.

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

The host of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2021, New Zealand, and the next four highest-placed teams on the points table qualify directly for one-day international cricket's pinnacle event.

"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 further said.

Meanwhile, two other ICC Women's Championship series have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. South Africa were to host Australia and Sri Lanka were to host New Zealand in the last round of matches.

The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier is scheduled to be played from July 3-19 in Sri Lanka, this is subject to review due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 10 teams vying for the three remaining places in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2021 will be the hosts, Sri Lanka, along with Pakistan and West Indies from the ICC Women's Championship, the two other teams with ODI status, Bangladesh and Ireland, and the winners of the five regional qualifiers - Thailand (Asia), Zimbabwe (Africa), Papua New Guinea (East Asia Pacific), United States of America (Americas) and Netherlands (Europe).