… Warm-up match set for this weekend
IRELAND were the first team to arrive in Guyana on Monday night for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup which is being hosted by three Caribbean countries inclusive of Guyana from November 9 to 24.
They were welcomed by Minister of Social Cohesion with responsibility for Sport, Youth and Culture, Dr. George Nortonm along with WWT20 Match Day manager KJ Singh and Venue manager Sabrina Panday at the Marriott Hotel.
This will be the sixth edition of the ICC Women’s World Twenty20, and the second hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition). However, in 2010 the men’s and women’s tournament were held simultaneously. This time the female tournament stands alone.
The tournament was awarded to Cricket West Indies at the 2013 annual conference of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The ten teams who will be competing are Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Ireland and Bangladesh.
Eight of the ten teams qualified automatically with Bangladesh and Ireland finishing first and second respectively at the Qualifier tournament in July of this year in the Netherlands. They won their respective semi-final matches in the qualifier, to advance to the Women’s World Twenty20 tournament.
The most successful team at the Women’s T20 World Cup are Australia having won the tournament thrice (in 2010, 2012 and 2014) while England won in 2009 with the Windies who are the defending champions winning in 2016.
The three host countries in the West Indies are St Lucia, Guyana and Antigua. The group matches will be played in Guyana and St Lucia with the semi-finals and final to be hosted by Antigua at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
The first practice session for Ireland will be today while other teams are expected to arrive throughout the week. The first official warm-up match will be Bangladesh vs Ireland on Sunday (November 4) at 16:00hrs while next Tuesday (November 6) South Africa will face Australia (16:00hrs) and Bangladesh vs Pakistan at 20:00hrs.
On Wednesday (November 7) England will play India at 16:00hrs while hosts Windies take on New Zealand at 20:00hrs.
The competition officially begins on November 9 with a triple-header at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
