3 ICC Men's T20 WC 2022 Qualifiers canceled

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday canceled three ICC Men's T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe Qualifiers pathway tournaments to the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finland was set to host their first ICC event with the Sub Regional Europe A and B qualifiers starting next month. The ICC Men's T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe B Qualifier was due to be hosted between June 30 and July 5 involving the hosts, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Luxembourg and Sweden.

The A qualifier was scheduled to start three days later with Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Israel, Italy, Malta, Norway, Spain all competing until July 13, said a press release issued here. The ICC Men's T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe C Qualifier which Belgium was due to host between July 5 and 10 involved Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Isle of Man, Portugal, Romania, Serbia.

After extensive consultation with both hosts, participating Members, the relevant governments, public health authorities and in line with the ICC's comprehensive contingency planning of COVID-19 the only course of action was to cancel the three events.

The cancellation was as a result of over half of the countries still facing significant restrictions on free movement and extensive quarantine periods for returning Members back into their home countries, as well as domestic restrictions in place preventing teams from selecting and preparing squads for the tournaments. Full approval from the Belgian government for the staging of the event based on the BioSafety Mitigation strategies proposed by the ICC was also not obtained.