12th ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 

QUALIFIERS BEGIN IN ZIMBABWE

# The Qualifying Tournament of the International Cricket Council (ICC) 2022 Women’s World Cup began on Sunday (21) and will continue till 5 December

# Nine countries are participating in an overall 25 matches

# The tournament is the final part of the qualification process for the 2022 12th Women’s Cricket World Cup

# This is also the fifth edition of the Women’s World Cup Qualifier, with the fixtures played as Women’s One-Day Internationals (WODIs)

# All the regional qualification tournaments used the Women’s Twenty20 International (WT20Is) format

# In the Zimbabwe Qualifiers, the top three teams out of the nine participants will progress to the eight-team 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup, to be held in New Zealand from 4 March to 3 April 2022

# The five countries already qualified to the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand are: New Zealand, Australia, England, South Africa, and India

# The top three teams from the Zimbabwe Qualifiers, along with the next two best-placed teams -- meaning five top teams out of the nine participants -- will also qualify for the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship, the pathway for the 13th World Cup

# Originally, the Women’s World Cup 2022 Qualifiers were scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka from 3 to 19 July 2020

# However, on 12 May 2020, the ICC confirmed that the tournament had been postponed due to the pandemic

# In August 2021, the ICC confirmed the new dates for the Qualifiers, and that it would be played in Zimbabwe, not in Sri Lanka

# The nine countries participating in the Zimbabwe Qualifiers are -

Group ‘A’: Ireland, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, and West Indies

Group ‘B’: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, USA, and Zimbabwe

(* Papua New Guinea withdrew from the Qualifiers due some squad members getting infected with Covid-19)

# The top three teams from each Group will enter the Super Six stage which is to be held from 1 to 5 December

# The top three countries emerging from Super Six will eventually qualify for the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand

Sri Lanka Schedule:

Tuesday, 23 Nov: Vs. Netherlands at Harare Sports Club, Harare at 9.30 a.m. (1 p.m. Sri Lanka time)

Saturday, 27 Nov: Vs. West Indies at Old Hararians, Harare at 9.30 a.m. (1 p.m. Sri Lanka time)

Monday, 29 Nov: Vs. Ireland at Sunrise Sports Club in Harare at 9.30 a.m. (1 p.m. Sri Lanka time)

Sri Lanka Squad (17):

Chamari Atapattu (Capt.), Harshitha Madavi (V. Capt.), Nilakshi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Imesha Dulani, Vishmi Gunaratne, Ama Kanchana, Achini Kulasuriya, Sugandika Kumari, Sachini Nisansala, Hasini Perera, Udeshika Prabodhani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Inoka Ranaweera, Anushka Sanjeewani, Tharika Sewwandi, and Prasadani Weerakkody (Standbys [5] - Lihini Apsara, Kawya Kavindi, Madushika Methtananda, Sathya Sandeepani, and Umesha Thimashini)