ICC announces confirmed schedule, qualification process for Women's T20 World Cup 2023

Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the confirmed schedule and the qualification process for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup which is slated to be played in South Africa in 2023.

The 10-team World Cup has now been rescheduled to February 9-26, 2023 and will see the hosts South Africa and the seven top teams on the MRF Tyres ICC Women's T20I Team Rankings as of November 30, 2021 - from the teams that competed at the Australia 2020 event - qualify automatically for the 2023 edition.

"The remaining two spots will be determined through a qualification process which is scheduled to start at regional level in August 2021 and includes 37 teams," said ICC in an official statement. 

The ICC said that this is an increase of ten teams from the Women's T20 World Cup 2020 qualification, reflecting the continued growth of bilateral women's T20 International cricket.

Eight teams Bhutan, Botswana, Cameroon, France, Malawi, Myanmar, Philippines and Turkey are all competing in an ICC women's event for the first time, which according to ICC is a nod to the growth within women's cricket around the globe in emerging markets. 

"Argentina and Brazil will return to ICC women's competition for the first time since 2012," said ICC.

The five regions will host a regional qualifying event with the top team from each region joining the bottom two ranked teams in the Women's T20I Rankings as of November 30 2021 – from the teams that competed at the Australia 2020 event - into the eight-team ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier 2022. 

The final position will be filled by the highest-ranked team in the regional qualifiers on the November cut-off date, who missed out on topping their regional event table.

Across the qualification pathway, there will be 115 Women's T20 Internationals played in the ICC events. 

"Alongside more regular women’s international cricket it also provides teams with the opportunity to move up the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings," informed ICC.

ICC also stated that all events are subject to COVID-19 arrangements if required at that time.