Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 is round the corner and the excitement is gradually building in. Amidst the excitement for World Cup, the concerns around COVID-19 and Omicron has put all of us on backfoot. However, the fans need not worry.
The Tournament CEO Andrea Nelson said that the much-awaited World Cup tournament will be taking place as scheduled and as of now there will be no changes to the plan. The Women’s ODI World Cup is to initiate from March 4th in New Zealand.
The teams competing would be New Zealand, the host, along with Australia, England, India, South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and West Indies. The last three teams qualified based on the ICC team rankings rather than qualifiers as the qualifiers which were being held in Zimbabwe were unfortunately canceled due to the new COVID variant and the sudden surge in the cases in Southern Africa. Due to all these, ICC and New Zealand will be taking even more precautions so that the tournament could take place without risking the health of players, staff, officials, or anyone else.
Earlier in the month, New Zealand had warned all teams and players of England and Australia playing the Ashes that if in the rear end of the Ashes series any player contracts COVID-19 they would not be permitted to fly to the tournament. New Zealand has very strict protocols which need to be followed by every player. Once players land in New Zealand, they will have to immediately be quarantined for 10 days before they can start practicing.
The questions about whether the World Cup would take place at its scheduled dates were asked because of the sudden surge of cases in New Zealand. New Zealand has been very careful regarding the pandemic and even a slight surge in cases leads to lockdowns and travel restrictions across the country. The tournament CEO Andrea Nelson reassured everyone by saying that there are a lot of precautions being taken and they are well on track which means the world cup would take place as scheduled. This is what she said to a small group of reporters on a conference call on Friday morning –
“We have been in preparation to host the World Cup here in 2022 for quite a sometime, originally it was scheduled for 2021. We are well on track and 35 days away from the opening match in Tauranga and 66 days away from the final at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
“The first thing to say is that the tournament schedule is remaining as it is, and that involves moving around New Zealand. We are working with the ICC in a managed environment. But broadly speaking, the tournament will proceed nationwide as planned,” she added.
The world cup is planned to take place in 6 venues across New Zealand – Tauranga, Dunedin, Hamilton, Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Nelson. As of now, she confirms there are no changes to that as well. The only changes could be relating to whether or not spectators would be allowed in the stadiums. All the players and fans looking forward to this tournament can breathe a sigh of relief.
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