By Carlena Knight
Mid-September has been outlined as the prospective date when the Female Regional Commonwealth Cricket Qualifiers will take place.
T20 Women’s cricket will feature at the Commonwealth Games for the first time, and cricket for the second time, after a men’s ODI competition which was staged in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, was won by South Africa.
Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, England and a nation from the Caribbean have been given spots for the women’s event 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Alongside the hosts England, the other nations to qualify were determined based on the T20I rankings on April 1, 2021 but athletes from the Caribbean in the Games represent their individual countries so a qualifying tournament for those nations will decide which team takes West Indies’ spot.
CEO of Cricket West Indies Johnny Grave made the revelation about the hosting of the qualifiers while speaking on the Good Morning JoJo Sport show on Thursday.
“We are hoping to have our Women’s Regional tournament later this year. We have earmarked the September window in the women’s calendar for that to take place,” Grave revealed.
The format for the qualifiers will take on a peculiar style according to Grave especially if the Leeward or Windward Islands teams are victorious.
“At the moment, it would be the six regional teams. If in the case the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands won the tournament then the country that has the most players within that Windward and Leeward side would then get the ticket to go through to the Commonwealth Games to represent the West Indies. It’s not a perfect model but at the same time we had to come up with something different than just picking the winner of the T20 which in the case of West Indies was Barbados,” Grave added.
Information on the event was disseminated to member associations.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games, which will attract 4,500 athletes from 72 nations and territories, is scheduled to run from July 28 to August 8 next year.