Women's World Cup 2022: Support staff to be allowed to play in case of Covid outbreak

With an aim to conduct an uninterrupted tournament, the ICC on Thursday said all matches at the upcoming Women's ODI World Cup in New Zealand could be played with nine players in case of a Covid-19 outbreak.

The nine-player-a-side game is already in place in the ICC guidelines related to playing conditions and has been in effect since the U-19 World Cup in the West Indies, where India won the title for a record fifth time.

ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley said at a media interaction in Christchurch today: "From a COVID perspective, we need to be a little bit flexible, as far as the way in which we manage the game to take into account these unique circumstances.

"So firstly, we have allowed squads to increase in size. Whilst the official playing 15 is still set at 15 as would always have been the case, we've allowed squads to bring additional traveling reserves so that they can replace on a temporary basis, if needs be because of COVID, players in and out of the squad during the event.

Keeping the pandemic scenario in mind, all teams have been allowed to take along three extra players as travelling reserves, who can be brought in the 15-member main squad should there be a Covid casualty. The ICC official also didn't rule out rescheduling of games if needed.

"We'll be asking teams to show maximum flexibility and we'll be as flexible as possible if the need arises to fulfil our objective, which is to get the games on," he said.

The tournament begins on March 4 with the opening match between hosts New Zealand and West Indies in Mount Maunganui.