Three Men's T20 World Cup Qualifiers postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic

Three Men's T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Africa and Asia, which are the pathway events to the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Asia A Qualifier was scheduled to be played between April 3 and 9. It will now be held in Kuwait between October 23 to 29. Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the participating nations in the tournament.

The Men's T20 World Cup Sub Regional Africa A and B Qualifiers, which were supposed to be held in South Africa in April, have been moved to October 25-31.

Qualifier A features Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland and Uganda, while Qualifier B has Botswana, Cameroon, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, St Helena and Tanzania.

The move has been forced as a number of participating nations have put restrictions in place with an aim to reduce the spread of new COVID-19 variants. The hard quarantine rules also contributed to the decision to postpone the qualifiers.

Issuing an official statement over the changes in schedule, the ICC informed:

“The postponements were confirmed as a result of the process undertaken for the ICC's comprehensive contingency planning of COVID-19 after consultation with members and with the relevant government and public health authorities.”

“The ICC Men's T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier is now confirmed to take place between 24 and 27 November in Nigeria involving Kenya, Nigeria, and the top teams from the Sub Regional Africa A and B Qualifiers respectively to allow sufficient time for the sub-regional qualifiers to be completed,” the statement further said.

Postponements to a number of qualifying tournaments for the 2022 Mens T20 World Cup while one qualifying event for the next U19 World Cup has been cancelled https://t.co/4z3yWkZvsR

— Rick Eyre on cricket (@rickeyrecricket) March 18, 2021

U19 World Cup qualifiers also affected

The ICC U19 Men's World Cup Asia Division 2 has also been canceled. Thailand will not be able to host the matches due to COVID-19 restrictions and there is no other option available as a replacement.

Bhutan, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Thailand were set to take part in the Division 2 event.

Oman and Singapore have thus been promoted to the U19 Men's CWC Asia Qualifier to be held in September in the UAE. The move was made based on the fact that both these sides have the best records in the previous five editions of the U19 Men's CWC qualifiers.

The ICC U19 Men's World Cup Africa Division 2 Qualifier has also been postponed from June 2021 to August 7-13.

Hosts Tanzania, Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sierra Leone will fight it out for two U19 Men's Cricket World Cup Africa Qualifier spots. The ICC said:

“The dates for the U19 Men's CWC Africa Qualifier have been confirmed as 25 September to 1 October and will be hosted by Nigeria with Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda also competing for one spot in the West Indies in early 2022.”

Furthermore, the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier has been pushed from September to October 3-11.

A qualifying event for the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World, the tournament features hosts Botswana, Cameroon, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.