DUBAI: Papua New Guinea have withdrawn from the Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe after several of their squad tested positive for Covid-19, the Internat­ional Cricket Council (ICC) said on Wednesday.

Papua New Guinea had been scheduled to face West Indies on the opening day of the Nov 21-Dec 5 qualifiers but are unable to field a team.

The 50-over squad had gone into quarantine in Port Moresby on Oct 30 and had been due to depart for Zimbabwe on Nov 6.

“Multiple PCR tests have been done on nearly a daily basis to try to give players the opportunity to test negative,” Papua New Guinea’s cricket board said in a statement. “We have also over the weekend worked with the ICC on later flight options to give the team more time to still be able to tour. Unfor­tunately, all the extra efforts to get the team to travel have been unsuccessful.”

The ICC said Papua New Guinea would not be replaced in Group ‘A’, which includes Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and West Indies.

The five-team Group ‘B’ includes Pakistan, Bang­ladesh, Thailand, Zimb­abwe and the United States.

Three teams from the qualifying tournament will join New Zealand, Aust­ralia, England, South Africa and India at the 2022 World Cup in March and April in New Zealand.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2021