Hagley to be focal point of Cup

The eyes of the cricket world will be on Christchurch’s Hagley Oval in 2022.

Hagley’s six 49-metre lighting towers were switched on for the first time yesterday by deputy prime minister Grant Robertson and the venue will be heavily involved at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022.

The schedule for the tournament was released yesterday after the original 2021 event was forced to be pushed back because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tournament was postponed from its original window in February-March 2021 with the same six host cities and venues retained for 2022.

As with the planned 2021 event, Hagley

will host the final under lights on April 3, 2022.

Hagley and Wellington’s Basin Reserve will host semifinals. Seddon Park in Hamilton and Tauranga’s Bay Oval were originally scheduled to host the semifinals in 2021.

Bay Oval will still host the opening match of the tournament, featuring the

White Ferns against a yet to be confirmed qualifier on March 4, 2022.

New Zealand, Australia, England, South Africa and India have already qualified for the World Cup.

The three remaining teams will emerge from the ICC qualifying tournament which will take place from June 26-July 10, 2021 in Sri Lanka.

The eight team round-robin World Cup format will see all teams play each other, with the top four teams qualifying for the semifinals.

The event will be the first of two major cricket tournaments across the globe in 2022 – the other being the Commonwealth Games in England.

Prize money for the showpiece event will total NZ$5.5million and all matches will be broadcast live.