Bangladesh Women’s Cricket team qualified for the 12th version of the ICC  ongoing ICC Women's Cricket World Cup for the first time as the ongoing qualifier round of the global meet in Zimbabwe has been abandoned due to emergence of a new Covid-19 variant in neighboring South Africa.   

The ongoing qualifying tournament, scheduled to be played till December 5 in Zimbabwe, have decided the final three spots for the ICC Women's World Cup in New Zealand next year as well as the remaining two berths in the next cycle of the ICC Women's Championship. 

Read: Women cricketers join individual training programme

With the emergence of the latest Covid-19 variant in South Africa and the introduction of travel restrictions from a number of African countries, including the hosts country Zimbabwe, the ICC has, however, decided to call off the event, with the qualification slots decided as per team rankings following the  tournament's playing conditions.  

Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies will now progress to the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand with Australia, India, England, South Africa and host New Zealand while Sri Lanka and Ireland occupying the other slots for the 2022-25 cycle of the ICC Women's Championship.

"We’re incredibly disappointed to have to cancel the remainder of this event but with travel restrictions from a number of African countries being imposed at such short notice, there was a serious risk that teams would be unable to return home," said Chris Tetley, the ICC Head of Events.

"We’ve explored a number of options to allow us to complete the event but it isn’t feasible and we will fly the teams out of Zimbabwe as soon as possible,” he added. 

Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies will now qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 by virtue of their rankings, whilst Sri Lanka and Ireland will also join them in the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship," he said.

Read: BCB announces women cricket teams for Bangladesh Games

Play in two of the three matches scheduled for Saturday (Nov 27) – Zimbabwe v Pakistan and USA v Thailand – started as scheduled but the third fixture of the day, between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, could not be staged as a member of the Sri Lanka team support staff tested positive for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, South Africa shut down their sports activities on Friday as travel bans forced rugby and teams and golfers to scramble to try to leave the country.