Canada, UAE and Papua New Guinea qualify for 2022 U-19 Men's World Cup
DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that the Americas, Asia and EAP qualifiers to the ICC U19 men's cricket World Cup have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The apex body of cricket said based on guidelines approved by the ICC Development Committee and the ICC Board, the three events cannot be staged.
"Therefore, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and Papua New Guinea will all progress to the ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup 2022 on the basis of them securing the most wins in the last five U19 qualifying events in each respective region," ICC said in a statement.
ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley said: "It is incredibly disappointing that three regional qualifiers to the ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup have been cancelled due to COVID-19. Under the Member approved guidelines, where teams have withdrawn due to the impact caused by the pandemic, we had no other alternative but to cancel these three events.
"We have worked closely with all Members to try to ensure results can be determined on the field of play, however for these events it was not possible. Canada, the UAE and PNG will all progress to the U19 Men's CWC in line with the decision taken by the ICC Board in November 2020 in relation to cancelled qualifying events," he added.
In addition, the ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup Africa has been relocated from Nigeria to Rwanda and will now be played from September 30 to October 7 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The remaining two regional qualifiers are:
ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup Europe Qualifier, Host Spain, 19-25 September 2021
Participating teams: Ireland, Jersey, Netherlands, Scotland
ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup Africa Qualifier, Host Rwanda, 30 September - 7 October 2021
Participating teams: Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda