The ongoing ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021 in Zimbabwe, in which the West Indies Women have been playing, has been abandoned over COVID-related concerns.

The tournament was to have decided the final three spots for next year’s ICC Women’s World Cup in New Zealand as well as the remaining two berths in the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship and was to have concluded on December 5.

However, with the emergence of the latest COVID-19 variant in South Africa and the introduction of travel restrictions from a number of African countries, including the host country Zimbabwe, the ICC has decided to call off the event, with the qualification slots decided as per team rankings, in keeping with the tournament’s playing conditions.

“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.”

The tournament was already experiencing challenges related to Covid as play in two of the three matches scheduled for Saturday, November 27, as the match between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, could not be played as a member of the Sri Lanka team support staff tested positive for COVID-19