Ind women penalised by ICC for skipping Pak matches

The International Cricket Council has docked six points of Indian women’s cricket team after they skipped all their three matches against Pakistan in the ICC women’s championship competition.

Following consideration of written submissions from both the PCB and the BCCI, the ICC Technical Committee has ruled that the India Women’s team is deemed to have forfeited each of the three matches it was due to play against Pakistan in Round 6 of the ICC Women’s Championship, and that the associated points should be awarded to Pakistan.

The matches, which were due to be played between 1 August and 31 October 2016, were not formally scheduled and did not ultimately take place, and the Technical Committee has ruled that Pakistan will be awarded two points for each of the three games and, in accordance with the ICC Women’s Championship playing conditions, India shall be considered to have scored 0 runs in each of the 50 overs in each of the three matches and that its net run rate shall be adjusted accordingly.

The Technical Committee was sensitive to the current state of relations between the nations of India and Pakistan, but concluded that the BCCI had not been able to establish ‘acceptable reasons’ for not participating in this series.

The Technical Committee comprised Geoff Allardice, ICC General Manager – Cricket, Andy Hobbs, ICC acting Head of Global Development and Iain Higgins, ICC Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel.

This decision means that there will be no change to the current standings on the ICC Women’s Championship Points Table, with India remaining in fifth position and Pakistan remaining in seventh position.

The teams that have automatically qualified for the ICC Women’s World Cup, to be played in England from 26 June 2017 to 23 July 2017 are Australia, England, New Zealand and the West Indies, while India, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will join Bangladesh, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Thailand in the Women’s World Cup Qualifier, to be played in Sri Lanka from 7-21 February 2017, where the top four placed teams will progress to the Women’s World Cup.