4 teams will qualify for ICC World T20

Four among 16 countries will qualify for the tournament proper of ICC World T20 for men scheduled to be held in India in 2021. The event replaces the eight-team Champions Trophy ODI tournament that was last held in 2017 in England. In a statement, Dubai based International Council, the governing body of cricket worldwide, said  11 regional qualification tournaments will take place across the five ICC regions (Africa, Americas, Asia, East-Asia Pacific and Europe) with eight teams progressing to one of two global qualifying events. The 12 teams, which make round two of the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia will gain automatic entry into the event the following year. All Members who meet the ICC Event Participation Criteria (EPPC) will be eligible to participate in the qualification for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, ICC said. ICC has rescheduled the South African edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup by three months to February 2023 to avoid a cluster of big-ticket events in 2022. The tournament, which was scheduled in November 2022, will now be held from February 9 to 26, 2023. It said, if not postponed, the year 2022 will have three major events including  Common Wealth Games and 50 over Women’s World Cup. In August this year, the ICC had postponed the 50 over Women’s World Cup slated in New Zealand from 2021 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and women’s T20 cricket is also set to make its debut in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

ICC said the decision was taken keeping in mind the workload of the players and also considering long term interest of women’s cricket.