ICC U19 Women’s World Cup uncertain to take place in 2021

The inaugural U19 Women’s World Cup, which was scheduled to take place in January 2021 in Bangladesh, is in doubt of taking place.

According to TOI, the ICC has more or less made up its mind to defer it and has conveyed its intentions to the member boards. However, no official announcement has been made yet.

A BCCI source told TOI, “The cricket boards were told that the event has been indefinitely postponed. Even the Indian cricket board (BCCI) has not gone ahead with its plans of putting together a team.”

The message from sources within the ICC, though, indicate that a concrete decision is to be taken on the future of the tournament in the month of November, in the ICC’s latest board meeting. Bangladesh was certainly slated to host. It’s just that it never got the final green light,” an ICC source told TOI.

ALSO READ: ICC Women’s World Cup postponed to 2022, India retain Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 hosting rights

The format of the tournament hasn’t been decided upon yet either, with T20 being talked about as the preferred format.

The board members aren’t pleased with the way the ICC has handled the issue so far. A BCCI official said, “There has been no clarity on qualification tournaments. One has to keep in mind that putting out a national women’s U19 team is not as easy as putting together a men’s team. The resources are thin.

“Most countries are still working on setting up a concrete system. BCCI, for example, is still putting in place a system where the state associations were told to focus on U-16 district tournaments for girls so that there will be a pool of U19 team in a couple of years. But the ICC needs to come up with a definite plan first.”