Cricket is the first discipline to announce qualifying teams for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games as the sport makes a landmark re-entry to the prestigious multi-sport event.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) made the announcement on Monday in a statement on the CGF website.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that women’s cricket is featuring in the Games scheduled for July 28 to Aug. 8 in 2022 for the first time in 22 editions.
Cricket is featuring for only the second time ever, the first occasion being a men’s ODI competition in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, which was won by South Africa.
“The six qualifiers who join home team England in the eight-team Twenty20 competition are Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and a country from the West Indies.
“They have secured qualification as a result of their standings in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings on 1 April 2021.
“As per the qualification process, the winner of a designated qualifying event will determine which country from the Caribbean region gets to participate as athletes will be representing their individual countries and not the West Indies as they would at ICC events.
“The last participating team will be decided through a qualifying tournament to be held by Jan. 31, 2022, details of which will be announced in due course,” the statement read.
NAN reports that the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will see 4,500 athletes from 72 nations and territories compete across 11 spectacular days of sports.
Birmingham 2022 will be the first major multi-sport event in history to award more medals to women than men.
The Commonwealth Games cricket tournament will take place at the iconic Edgbaston Stadium, with tickets set to go on sale later this year.