The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the addition of two new teams to the next iteration of the ICC Women's Championship, making it a 10-team affair.
The ICC named Bangladesh and Ireland as the latest entrants in the ICC Women’s Championship for the 2022-2025 edition. This will be the third Women’s Championship after the success of the previous iterations in 2014-16 and 2017-20. Bangladesh and Ireland are ranked 9th and 10th currently in Women’s ODI team rankings currently.
Each of the ten teams will play eighth three-match ODI series during the cycle, and the top-five teams and the host nation (to be decided) will get a direct qualification for the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025. The other four teams will then compete with the 11th and 12th team in the tournament qualifier, and the top two teams will make it to the eight-team World Cup.
Meg Lanning, Australia’s 2022 World Cup winning captain, said in an ICC release: “As we saw at the most recent ODI World Cup, there are a number of nations really starting to emerge so we’re going to have to be at the top of our game. We pride ourselves on finding ways to keep evolving and it’ll be more important than ever over the next period.”
“To have Bangladesh and Ireland involved, will not only be great for us to have the chance to play more cricket against them, but also to expose them to more cricket against the top nations.
“We want to see the women’s game as strong as possible and developing the next tier of nations is a big part of that.”
The 2022-25 Championship will kickstart with Pakistan’s three-match home series against Sri Lanka, beginning June 1. There’s no India-Pakistan series slotted in the entire cycle, with the two subcontinent teams set to play each of the other eight sides.
📡: WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
The match-ups for the @icc Women’s Championship 2022-25 have been revealed.
Ireland will face:
🏏 Home: England, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka
🏏 Away: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, West IndiesThe journey starts next week!#BackingGreen ☘️🏏 pic.twitter.com/q7OmXMRexI
— Ireland Women’s Cricket (@IrishWomensCric) May 25, 2022
The ICC has also granted ODI status to Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand and USA with immediate effect.
“Increasing the number of teams in the ICC Women’s Championship and awarding ODI status to five additional teams will help us to accelerate the growth of the women’s game,” said ICC CEO Geoff Allardice in an ICC statement.
“More teams playing more regularly creates a more competitive environment as we saw at the recent ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.”
