Women's World Cup qualifiers scheduled for April 9–19 in Lahore


Pakistan vs Ireland and Scotland vs West Indies will kick off the qualifying competition in Lahore on April 9 ahead of the women's ODI World Cup, which will be played in October this year in India. The following day, the remaining teams in the six-team competition, Bangladesh and Thailand, will compete against one another. Apart from India, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka have already qualified for the World Cup, and the final two spots will be filled by the top-two teams from the qualifying tournament. The Lahore City Cricket Association grounds and the brand-new Gaddafi Stadium will serve as the venues for the games. The two venues, as well as the Aitchison College grounds, will host the warm-up fixtures on April 5 and April 7, after the visiting teams arrive in Lahore on April 3. On April 19, the final set of games will be played. The schedule has been officially released today, on March 14, just over three weeks from the start of the tournament, though three boards - West Indies, Ireland and Bangladesh - had put out the dates and venues in an unofficial capacity when announcing their season's fixtures and in the case of Bangladesh, their squad for the event. After the Champions Trophy, this is the second ICC tournament to be held in Pakistan, and all matches will be played there. Lahore is the only city being used for the event, as there will be no PSL matches held there until April 24. That tournament starts in Rawalpindi on April 11. As reported earlier because of the reciprocal arrangement arrived at by the BCCI and the PCB before the Champions Trophy earlier this year, Pakistan, if they qualify for the main event, will not travel to India to play their matches. A neutral location will be used for those matches. In 2025, India will play host to the Women's One-Day International World Cup for the fifth time and the first time since 2011. It will also be the first global women's tournament to be held in India since 2016 when the T20 World Cup ran parallel to the men's event. With eight teams participating and 31 matches played, the 2025 edition is expected to be similar to the 2022 edition.