Dubai [UAE] (ANI): Geoff Allardice, the CEO of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that the inaugural edition of the U19 Women’s World Cup is on the cards. Allardice also said that the ICC would be looking to narrow down on potential hosts for the tournament in the coming few months. “The Under-19 Women’s World Cup is in the schedule for January 2023. Over the next couple of months, ahead of our April board meetings, we will be looking for potential hosts for that tournament with the hosts to be decided at the next board meetings. It’s very much on the cards for next year,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Allardice as saying. The U19 Women’s World Cup was originally slated for 2021 in Bangladesh but was deferred to 2023 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are looking at a similar structure to the Men’s Under-19 World Cup in terms of the number of teams and the opportunity for associate members to participate. This has been discussed for a couple of years now and Covid has postponed when we were going to play the first edition of it. What that has done has given some countries more time to get their programmes in place and get their squad structures organized, so I think the qualification will take place during 2022,” said Allardice. The decision to have a Women’s Under-19 World Cup was made in October 2019, when Shashank Manohar was the chairman of the ICC. (Image source: Instagram)
