Determined Thailand cricketers kept Women's World Cup 2022 trophy on their mobile wallpaper during Qualifiers

The emergence of the new variant of the COVID-19 virus, which has been named Omicron, has started impacting cricket in African countries. With the cases being on a rise, the International Cricket Council (ICC) abandoned the ongoing Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021 in Zimbabwe. The tournament, which was scheduled to run till 5 December, would have determined the final three spots for the ICC Women’s World Cup in New Zealand next year.

It would also have decided the remaining two berths in the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship. However, the travel restrictions in African countries including hosts nation Zimbabwe forced ICC to call off the competition. With the qualifying tournament being inconclusive, ICC decided to fill the qualification slots as per team rankings.

Hence, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies will now progress to the next year’s global event with New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Ireland occupying the other slots for the 2022-25 cycle of the Women’s Championship. While the qualified teams would have been pretty pleased, sides, who couldn’t make it, would be gutted.

Suspension of Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2021 left Thailand team disappointed

Thailand women’s cricket team was greatly disappointed after the suspension and that was evident in a post made by one of their players Natthakan Chantham. The cricketer took to Twitter and shared a picture showcasing the entire squad of the Thailand kept 2022 World Cup trophy as their wall paper during the qualifiers.

Chantham apparently shared a picture of mobile phones of all team players with the caption being a couple of heart-break emojis. The post got viral in no time as fans condoled her and the entire Thailand team for missing out on the World Cup berth.

Meanwhile, ICC expressed their disappointment over the suspension of the competition. “We are 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, in a statement.

“We have 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. 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 added.