Teams at next month's Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand will be able to field a side with only nine players if their squad is affected by Covid-19.
Amy Satterwhaite during the 2nd InternationaI one day cricket match between White Ferns and England at Bert Sutcliffe Oval, Christchurch on 3 March 2012. Photo: Photosport / Richard Connelly
The International Cricket Council has made this call to support teams and ensure the tournament can continue as normally as possible and the ICC's head of events Chris Tetley said there was a need to be "flexible" with the unique circumstances in a Covid environment.
"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.
"There's opportunity for players to contract Covid-19 but then to be able to come back. It's important that we do everything we can to try and maximise opportunities for the best players in the world to show their skills at a World Cup.
"If it becomes necessary, we would allow a team to field nine players as an exception for this environment and if they had female substitutes from within their management team, we would enable two substitutes to play, non-batting, non-bowling, but to enable a game to take place."
The tournament begins on 4 March in Tauranga and will culminate with the final in Christchurch on 3 April with each team playing the other seven once to decide the top four who will advance to the semi-finals.
"We would, were it necessary, reschedule fixtures, if it's possible. There's obviously a number of logistical constraints upon us but we'll be asking teams to show maximum flexibility."
The Women's Cricket World Cup chief executive officer Andrea Nelson said under red restrictions fans could be in pods of 100.
"We're taking it week-by-week as we work our way through but in the first week, it is likely that there'll be some availability at some matches," Nelsen said.
"Unfortunately, at some venues, we will have to cancel existing ticket holders and obviously, that's not something we want to do and we're working really hard to see how many people we can get into the stadium and maximise interest in the World Cup."
