Commonwealth Games Committee announces schedule for its first Women's T20 matches
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Birmingham: As cricket is going to be played for only the second time in Commonwealth Games history, The 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games Organising Committee on Tuesday announced the schedule for its first women's T20 competition.
The only time cricket was a part of the quadrennial event was in Kuala Lumpur (1998), when a men's ODI competition was held, and South Africa won.
The women's cricket which is featuring at the CWG for the first time in its past 22 editions, will be held between July 29 and August 7 and all the matches will be played at Edgbaston over 10 days.
While the group stage matches in the eight-team competition will take place until August 4, the semi-finals will be played on August 6. The final and the playoff for the bronze medal will take place on August 7.
As per the format, the six qualifiers who will join home team England in the eight-team Twenty20 competition are Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and a country from the West Indies. These countries have secured qualification on the basis of their standings in the ICC women's T20I team rankings on April 1, 2021.
As per the qualification process, the winner of a "Designated Qualifying Event" will determine which country from the Caribbean gets to participate, as athletes will be representing their individual countries and not the West Indies as they would at ICC events.
The eighth and last participating team will be decided through a qualifying tournament, to be held before January 31 next year, details of which will be announced later.
"With 11 days of swimming and diving, 8 days of cricket, 8 days of gymnastics and 7 days of athletics, including the marathon, the summer of 2022 is set for a spectacular home Games," the Games website said on Tuesday.
"The Birmingham 2022 competition schedule features more medal events for women than men for the first time in Commonwealth Games history, as well as a fully integrated para-sport programme," it added.