New Delhi: Women’s cricket will make its debut at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games next year, the Birmingham Commonwealth organizing committee announced on Tuesday. The matches will be played in T20 format at Edgbaston from July 28 to August 7 next year.
While the group stage matches in the eight-team event will take place until August 4, the semifinals are likely on August 6. The ultimate final and the bronze medal encounter will take place on August 7.
As per the format, the six qualifiers who will join home team England in the eight-team T20 competition are Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and a country from the West Indies. These countries have secured qualification on the basis of their standings in the ICC women’s T20I team rankings on April 1, 2021.
As per the qualification process, the winner of a ‘Designated Qualifying Event’ will determine which country from the Caribbean gets the nod as cricketers will be representing their individual countries and not the West Indies as they would at ICC events.
“With 11 days of swimming and diving, 8 days of cricket, 8 days of gymnastics and 7 days of athletics, including the marathon, the summer of 2022 is set for a spectacular home Games,” the Games official website said on Tuesday.
Cricket is going to be played for only the second time ever in the history of the Commonwealth Games. The only other time cricket was a part of the quadrennial event was in Kuala Lumpur (1998), when a men’s ODI competition was held that South Africa won.
The Indian women’s team are currently placed third in the ICC standings, behind leaders in Australia and England. The Commonwealth Games 2022 will feature competitions across 19 sports and will see more medal events for women compared to their male counterparts.
