The Commonwealth Games Federation and the International Cricket Council have announced the qualification process for the T20 women's cricket tournament at the 2022 Games in Birmingham with England granted a spot as hosts.
The eight-team competition will be the first time that women's cricket has been part at the Commonwealth Games and only the second time there has been any cricket featured, following a men's event in Kuala Lumpar in 1998.
The tournament is scheduled to take place between July 28 and August 8, 2022 at Edgbaston and England will be joined by the six other highest-ranking sides in the ICC women's T20I standings as of April 1, 2021.
- England to host India in 2021 in full summer schedule
- England make Pakistan return for T20s in October 2021
The final place will go to the winner of the Commonwealth Games Qualifier, for which the format and the details are yet to be announced. The Qualifier must be played by January 31, 2022.
Since athletes from the Caribbean will be representing their countries and not the West Indies (as they are affiliated with the ICC), the winner of a designated qualifying tournament will decide which country gets to compete if the West Indies get a slot.
"Cricket at the Commonwealth Games is a fantastic opportunity for us to continue to grow the women's game globally," said ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney. "We are committed to accelerating this growth and maintaining the momentum we have created over the past few years, which most recently saw 86,174 fans packed into the MCG for the final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020."
Commonwealth Games Federation president Dame Louise Martin added: "We are absolutely delighted to have women's T20 cricket debut at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
"Cricket has always been one of the Commonwealth's most popular sports and it is so special to have it back at our Games for the first time since the men's competition at Kuala Lumpur 1998, where true greats of the game including Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar were on show.
"Now is the turn of the women and I can't wait to see the next generation of stars like Heather Knight, Harmanpreet Kaur and Meg Lanning take centre stage."
Meanwhile, England captain Heather Knight is looking forward to taking part in such an historic event.
"It's incredibly exciting that we're going to be taking part in the Commonwealth Games on home soil," she said. "It's an event I've often watched and I never really imagined I'd be taking part so it feels really special.
"We can't wait to be in Birmingham amongst all the other athletes, and we're counting down towards 2022 - it's going to be a huge year for us and for women's cricket in general."