DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced that the second series of the World Cup Challenge League A in Malaysia has been postponed due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The tournament was set to begin on March 16.
The 11-day tournament feature teams from Canada, Denmark, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore, and Vanuatu.
Due to a rapidly developing heath emergency with increasing travel difficulties between countries and potential uncertainty arising for individuals returning to their country of origin, the decision was taken to postpone the event to later in 2020.
“We have made the difficult decision to postpone the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Challenge League A due to the Coronavirus outbreak. We have been monitoring the situation very closely and have concluded that the best course of action is to postpone the event,” said Chris Tetley, ICC Head of Events.
The event is three steps away from the 2023 World Cup in India.
12 teams will compete in Challenge League A and B once a year respectively in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
The league will see a total of 90 competitive 50 over List A matches for teams ranked 21-32.
The top team in each league at the culmination of the competition will secure two of the six places in the World Cup Qualifier Play-Off in 2022, alongside the bottom four of CWC League 2.
“I would like to thank the Malaysian Cricket Association and all participating Members for their support. The well being of everyone involved is our first priority and we look forward to the event being played later in the year,” added Tetley.
