India lose points for refusing to play Pakistan in ICC Women's Championship

The India women's cricket team has been deemed to have forfeited each of the three matches after refusing to play with arch-rivals Pakistan in Round 6 of the ICC Women's Championship, the ICC has said on Wednesday.

Following consideration of written submissions from both the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the ICC technical committee awarded the associated points.

"The matches, which were due to be played between August 1 and October 31, 2016, were not formally scheduled and did not ultimately take place. And the technical committee has ruled that Pakistan will be awarded two points for each of the three games and, in accordance with the ICC Women's Championship playing conditions, India shall be considered to have scored 0 runs in each of the 50 overs in each of the three matches and that its net run rate shall be adjusted accordingly," ICC said in a statement.

"The technical committee was sensitive to the current state of relations between the nations of India and Pakistan, but concluded that the BCCI had not been able to establish aacceptable reasons' for not participating in this series."

The technical committee comprised Geoff Allardice, ICC General Manager -- Cricket, Andy Hobbs, ICC acting Head of Global Development and Iain Higgins, ICC Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel.

This decision means that there will be no change to the current standings on the ICC Women's Championship Points Table, with India remaining in fifth position and Pakistan remaining in seventh position.

The teams that have automatically qualified for the ICC Women's World Cup, to be played in England from June 26 to July 23, 2017 are Australia, England, New Zealand and the West Indies.

India, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will join Bangladesh, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Thailand in the Women's World Cup Qualifier, to be played in Sri Lanka from February 7-21, 2017, where the top four placed teams will progress to the Women's World Cup.

--IANS

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