Cricket enthusiasts around the world are very unhappy. The first T20 foreign match between India and Sri Lanka on Thursday at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow will be played without fans due to COVID-19 restrictions. One destination threatens enthusiasts wishing to attend the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup ICC Fites, which kicks off in New Zealand from 4 March.
New Zealand has a lot of Asian expats. For them, any series that features their home country is a special moment to celebrate. In recent times, Bangladeshi enthusiasts have not seen their country achieve a historic victory in the event against New Zealand.
Similarly, Indian enthusiasts failed to see their team pull off a six-wicket victory over Kiwi in an ODI match in Queenstown on Thursday.
But what Asian enthusiasts will miss is the successful Cricket World Cup 2022 match between Indian and Pakistani women at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui, on March 6 at 6:30 a. m. IST.
According to the organizing committee of the Women’s World Cup, no fans will be allowed to enter. Bangladesh fans will also miss their team’s opening match against South Africa in Dunedin on March 5.
The chief executive of the World Cup organising committee, Andrea Nelson, said New Zealand has been under restrictions on its light traffic system lately, due to rising Omicron cases.
Nelson said: “Lately we’re able to run in teams of 100. We’re taking it week in and week out as we go along, but in the first week there will most likely be some availability in some games.
“If you enter tickets. cricketworldcup. com early next week, if you’re on the lookout, there will be tickets available.
“Unfortunately, in some venues we will have to cancel existing price ticket holders and obviously that’s not something we need to do and we’re working really hard to see how many other people we can get into the stadium and maximise interest in the World Cup. “. .
“Our players here in the box will follow pretty strict protocols to stay and for the tournament to continue.
“We have measures in place, such as domestic charter flights, exclusive hotel flats and an environment where, if you’re with the team, you have to isolate for a certain amount of time before entering.
“We hope this will keep the team’s environment as safe as possible and then we will concentrate on once inside our stadiums to ensure the protection of the public. “
For ICC, it’s vital to finish the tournament, even if the groups have to play with nine players in a match. COVID-19 has already wreaked havoc on the cricket calendar and the T20 World Cup in Australia last year had to be cancelled.
“So, first of all, we’ve allowed the groups to grow in size. Although the official number of 15 players is still set at 15, as would have been the case, we have allowed groups to bring in more bookings along the way. so that we can temporarily replace, if necessary due to COVID, players coming in and out of the team during the event,” said Chris Tetley, ICC’s head of events, during a media interaction in Christchurch on Thursday.
“If necessary, we would allow a team to box with nine players as an exception in that environment and if they had female substitutes in their control team, we would allow two substitutes to play, bat, bowl, but we would allow a play. ” Tetley added.
The Women’s Cricket World Cup kicks off on March 4 in Tauranga and will culminate with the final in Christchurch on April 3, in which each team will bet on the other seven once against the top four who will advance to the semi-finals.
Tetley said: “If necessary, we would reschedule the games, if possible. Obviously we have a number of logistical constraints, but we will ask them to be as flexible as possible. “
“We will be as flexible as possible if the need finally arises to achieve our goal of starting the games, having a credible World Cup and having a world champion at the end. “