West Indies Women breathed a sigh of relief after earning an automatic qualification for next year’s ICC 50-overs World Cup in England.
Their bid to become one of the four automatic qualifiers had been left in limbo following a humiliating 3-0 whitewash to India Women last month (November), which left them fourth in the ICC Women’s Championship after their full complement of 21 games.
The top four in the Championship gain automatic qualification.
However, they were in danger of being overtaken by India Women who were fifth on 19 points with three games remaining and needed to just win two of their remaining games to clinch the fourth automatic World Cup position.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) subsequently ruled last week that India has “forfeited each of the three matches it was due to play against Pakistan in Round 6 of the ICC Women’s Championship and that the points should be awarded to Pakistan.”
The ICC said the Technical Committee was sensitive to the current state of relations between the nations of India and Pakistan, but concluded that the India Cricket Board of Control had not been able to establish “acceptable reasons” for not participating in the series.
West Indies Women clinched fourth place with 22 points, avoiding a 10-team play-off in Sri Lanka next February to determine the four spots in the World Cup.
Australia Women won the Women’s Championship with 36 points with England Women on second with 29 points and New Zealand Women third on 26.
