ICC cancels Asia Qualifiers citing COVID-19, Nepal’s hope of playing in World Cup dashed

KATHMANDU: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has cancelled Asia Qualifiers for the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2022 citing COVID-19.

With this, Nepal’s dream to play the World Cup has ended.

Along with Nepal, other countries in the region who have been barred from playing the World Cup include UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore and Oman.

Similarly, the ICC has stated that the qualification games of the America and East Asia Pacific (EAP) along with the Asian Qualification matches for the U-19 World Cup have been cancelled.

However, the qualifiers of the Europe and Africa regions will take place.

ICC stated that the teams have been selected based on their performance in the latest five World Cup Qualifiers with the confirmation of the cancellation of U-19 Asia Qualifiers.

Accordingly, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Asia, Canada from the America Qualifiers and Papua New Guinea from the EAPA have been automatically selected for World Cup.