On Monday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the schedule for the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 2018, to be taking place in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November. The 10-team tournament, featuring three-time champions Australia, dominating ICC Women’s World Cup winners England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and defending champions the Windies, plus two qualifiers, will be played across three venues in the Caribbean.
The finalists of the ICC Women’s World T20 Qualifier in the Netherlands from 7 to 14 July will complete the line-up of the tournament in November, which is the first stand-alone ICC Women’s World Twenty20 event. The teams participating in the qualifying event are Bangladesh, Ireland, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates.
All the teams will be playing 23 matches in total and all of them will be broadcast live to maintain the momentum and focus on women’s cricket, while the Decision Review System (DRS) will be used for the first time in any ICC World Twenty20 event, in order to make sure that the consistency in the use of technology in top world-level events.
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Defending champions the Windies are in Group A along with England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Qualifier 1 from the Netherlands event, while Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Qualifier 2 will be in Group B.
The event kicks off at the Guyana National Stadium, starting with India and New Zealand. In the second match, Australia will play Pakistan and the Windies round off the day playing Qualifier 1 under lights.
This venue will also host matches between arch-rivals India and Pakistan on 11 November and trans-Tasman adversaries Australia and New Zealand two days later. While the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua will host both semifinals on 22 November and the final on 24 November.
ICC Women’s World T20 Tournament Director, Jennifer Nero said, “The West Indies is one of the great places in the world for sports, entertainment, and culture. Cricket is the heartbeat of the West Indies and we want to showcase all these offerings during the tournament. It will be fast-paced, exciting and action-packed with lots of enjoyable moments. This is the Year of the Woman, and the world’s top teams will be coming.”
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He further added, “I want to urge the fans to come out and see the best players in the modern game. Women’s cricket is growing at a rapid rate as we saw from last year’s ICC Women’s World Cup in England, and teams are getting stronger. Here in the West Indies, we are committed to playing a major role in the continued growth and development of the sport. We want to invite the cricket world to be part of this exhilarating world-class event on and off the field.”
