January 3, 2020
BCCI failed to invite Pakistan Women for the scheduled ODI series. Subsequent forfeiture of 6 ICC Women ODI Championship, by India, guarantees Pakistan Women’s direct qualification for ICC Women’s ODI World Cup to be held in New Zealand in 2021.
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| Picture Courtesy: PCB |
The 6 points will place Pakistan-W at 3rd spot in the points table behind Australia-W and England-W. ICC Women’s ODI Championship kicked off in 2017, comprising 8 of the top Women’s teams in Cricket. According to the qualification mechanism for the next edition of ICC Women’s World Cup, top 4 teams and the hosts, New Zealand, will qualify directly for the main event.
The 3 remaining teams will then join the two remaining ODI status holding teams who were not part of this championship – Bangladesh and Ireland – and five other teams in a qualifying tournament to be held in 2020. The top three teams from that qualifying tournament will join the 5 teams from ICC Women’s ODI Championship 2017-2021 in the main round of ICC Women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand.
At the moment, India-W stands at 3rd spot in the table with 20 points, 4 points clear of nearest challengers – 4th ranked Pakistan-W and 5th ranked South Africa-W. The failure of India-W to host Pakistan-W, however, has put India-W also in danger of missing out on the direct qualification and to participate in the qualification tournament, instead.
In the championship, each of the 8 participants were supposed to face the 7 other participants in a 3-ODI series, a total of 21 ODIs. England-W and West Indies-W have already played out their quota of 21 matches. Australia-W and Sri Lanka-W have played 18 apiece, while New Zealand-W and South Africa-W have played 15 each, as of now.
On the points table, the bottom two teams – Sri Lanka-W with 2 points after 18 matches and West Indies-W with 13 points after 21 matches – are already out of the race of direct qualification. Whereas, the top two teams – Australia-W with 34 points after 18 matches and England-W with 29 points after 21 matches – have already qualified for the World Cup. New Zealand-W being the host of the tournament have also qualified, regardless of their final standing.
That leaves 3 teams – India-W, Pakistan-W and South Africa-W – to contest for the remaining 2 direct qualification spots.
India-W were supposed to host Pakistan-W in November 2019. However, according to PCB’s Press Release, PCB didn’t receive the invitation from the BCCI and with the series window already closed, the PCB has now referred the matter to the ICC event secretariat in Dubai. It would be interesting to see ICC’s verdict on this case as, effectively, it may also decide the direct qualification of India-W for 2021 ICC Women’s World Cup.
In case 6 points are awarded to Pakistan-W as a result of forfeiture by India-W, Pakistan-W will jump to 3rd spot with 22 points. India-W’s direct qualification will still remain secured as they would stand 4th in the table with 20 points.
However, South Africa-W still have to play a 3-ODI series each against New Zealand-W and Australia-W, in New Zealand and in South Africa, respectively. India-W’s forfeiture would simplify the equation for South Africa-W a great deal – all they would need is to ensure they win 5 out of remaining 12 points from the 6 remaining matches. That would take them past India-W’s 20 points. A tie with India-W on 20 points would see India-W going through as they already have more wins, 10, as compared to South Africa-W’s 7.
At the end of the day – or the championship to be exact – India-W might end up paying the price of following Indian government’s policy, of not playing with Pakistan at any level, with the embarrassment of playing qualification round – that too, after being at otherwise assured 3rd spot in the table.
Regardless of whether India-W end up playing the qualification tournament or not, this non-sporting government policy is bound to bring a pretty uncomfortable situation for all the supporters of mixing sports with political affairs; that is, to gift the honor and jubilation of direct qualification to the same opponent that the policy intends to isolate in the first place.
Regardless of whether India-W end up playing the qualification tournament or not, this non-sporting government policy is bound to bring a pretty uncomfortable situation for all the supporters of mixing sports with political affairs; that is, to gift the honor and jubilation of direct qualification to the same opponent that the policy intends to isolate in the first place.
Juxtaposition of CRICKET and Kamran Muzaffer brings out krick3r. A techie by qualification, a business manager by profession - yet, a cricket enthusiast by heart.