India Secure Direct Qualification For 2021 ODI World Cup

Cricket fans have some finally some good news as India have secured automatic qualification for the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup in 2021. The Women in Blue sealed the qualification after the ICC technical committee decided to split the points reserved for their cancelled series against Pakistan last year.

The series between India and Pakistan was a part of the ICC Women’s Championship. However, it could not take place as the “BCCI demonstrated that it was unable to obtain the necessary government clearances”. BCCI could not get the green light because of India’s poor bilateral relations with Pakistan.

Consequently, the matter was referred to the ICC Technical Committee which has cited it as a Force Majeure event, thereby deciding for both teams to share points. After gaining the points, India have sealed their position in the top four on the Championship table and have thus qualified for the mega event. Before the technical committee’s decision, India had 20 points while Pakistan had 16.

There were as many as six points at stake for the series. Had those points been considered as ‘forfeited by India’, as was the case in the 2014-16 cycle, Pakistan would’ve made it through instead.

“The India-Pakistan series was originally scheduled in the sixth round of the competition, between July and November 2019, but despite the best efforts of both the boards, it was unable to take place,” the ICC said in a release on Wednesday (April 15).

As it stands now, at the end of the Championship cycle, India have 23 points and are fourth on the table, while Pakistan have 19 points.As far as Pakistan are concerned, they will have to play the qualifiers which is due to take place from July 3-19 in Sri Lanka. The ICC also decided to share points for the South Africa v Australia and Sri Lanka v New Zealand series which were cancelled due to COVID-19.

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