International Cricket Council on Thursday announced that teams at the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022, will be able to field a side with only nine players if their squad is affected by COVID-19.
The ICC has made arrangements to support teams and ensure the tournament can continue as normally as possible. Other announcements include an unlimited number of super overs to decide tied matches and strict protocols for teams.
"From a COVID perspective, we need to be a little bit flexible, as far as the way in which we manage the game to take into account these unique circumstances," ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley said as per an official release.
"So firstly, we have allowed squads to increase in size. Whilst the official playing 15 is still set at 15 as would always have been the case, we've allowed squads to bring additional travelling reserves so that they can replace on a temporary basis, if needs be because of COVID, players in and out of the squad during the event," he added.
The tournament begins on March 4 in Tauranga and will culminate with the final in Christchurch on April 3 with each team playing the other seven once to decide the top four who will advance to the semi-finals.
Tetley said: "We would, were it necessary, reschedule fixtures if it's possible. There's obviously a number of logistical constraints upon us but we'll be asking teams to show maximum flexibility. We'll be as flexible as possible if the need arises to ultimately fulfill our objective which is to get the games on, get a credible World Cup played and a world champion at the end of it all."
"I guess I couldn't talk about playing conditions in New Zealand without mentioning a super over and we would have were it necessary unlimited super overs if we get to that point in the game. So we wouldn't get to the boundaries countback," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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