With the Indian government not allowing any bilateral series between India and Pakistan, the International Cricket Council on Wednesday applied the Force Majeure clause and decided to split the points equally between the two teams as part of the ICC Women’s Championship. The three points resulted in the Indian team, with 23 points, proceeding directly to the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 to be held from July 3 to July 19 in Sri Lanka.
Pakistan with 19 points, however, was unable to qualify directly due to the split points and will now go through a qualifier to make it to the 10-team marquee event in women’s cricket.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was able to prove that it was unable to play a series against Pakistan by showing correspondence with the Indian government. It reportedly furnished four letters written to the Union Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs as well as Ministry of External Affairs asking for permission. However, BCCI got no response from the concerned ministries. Thus, it was saved from facing any penalty or making the Women in Blue go through the more arduous route of qualifying for the World Cup.
The decision was taken by the ICC Women’s Championship Technical Committee. In a statement released late evening, the ICC said, “With respect to the India v Pakistan series, the TC concluded that the series could not be played because of an event after the BCCI demonstrated that it was unable to obtain the necessary government clearances to allow India to participate in the bilateral series against Pakistan, which forms a part of the ICC Women’s Championship.”
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 did not take place.
This news will be a huge relief to the BCCI and India women’s cricket team as it is in stark contrast to what happened prior to the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup in England where India was forced to forfeit its series against Pakistan and the Mithali Raj-led team had to play a quadrangular series and win it to make it to the competition. India’s run in the 2017 Women’s World Cup is unforgettable, where it reached the finals, but lost to England narrowly. This performance caught the fancy of the entire cricketing world and created a new legion of fans in India for the first time. Cricket players like Raj, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur became household names and it started a clamour for Women’s IPL in India.
Meanwhile, two other ICC Women’s Championship series have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. South Africa were to host Australia and Sri Lanka were to host New Zealand in the last round of matches. Australia (37 points), England (29), South Africa (25) and now India (23) have qualified by virtue of being the top four. Pakistan (19), New Zealand (17), West Indies (13) and Sri Lanka (5) are yet to qualify.
