ICC U19 World Cup: Afghanistan's late arrival forces 'rework' in fixtures

Afghanistan's late arrival into the Caribbean has forced the ICC to "rework" the fixtures in Group C for the 2022 U-19 World Cup, to be held in the West Indies from Friday.

"After successfully obtaining the necessary visas for travel, Afghanistan will arrive in the West Indies and undergo their required quarantine period," the ICC said in a statement.

The changes in the schedule were approved by the Event Technical Committee which comprises Chris Tetley, ICC Head of Events (Chair); Ben Leaver, ICC Senior Event Manager; Fawwaz Baksh, Tournament Director; Roland Holder, WICB Representative; Alan Wilkins and Russel Arnold.

Finally transit UK visas have been granted to @ACBofficials squad & they will be leaving UAE at 3 pm for the U19 @cricketworldcup. Hope @ICC would arrange few practice games somehow before the round robin games gets underway for us on 16th Jan. #BetterLateThanNever pic.twitter.com/5ATeIjOLRb — Cricket Afghanistan (@AFG_Sports) January 11, 2022

"We are delighted that the Afghanistan squad have received the necessary visas and will be able to travel to participate in the ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup 2022," Tetley said.

"We have reworked the fixtures for group C to ensure that all matches can take place within the allocated time frame and would like to thank the participating Members for their flexibility in finding a solution," he added.

To ensure all fixtures could be completed, four out of the six Group C matches in Trinidad and Tobago have been rescheduled as follows:

January 15 - Zimbabwe v PNG -- Queens Park Oval. Rescheduled from January 20.

January 17 - Pakistan v Zimbabwe -- Diego Martin Sporting Complex. Rescheduled from January 22.

January 18 - Afghanistan v PNG -- Diego Martin Sporting Complex. Unchanged.

January 20 - Pakistan v Afghanistan -- Brian Lara Cricket Ground. Unchanged.

January 22 - Pakistan v PNG -- Queens Park Oval. Rescheduled from January 15

January 22 - Afghanistan v Zimbabwe -- Diego Martin Sporting Complex. Rescheduled from January 16.