It came down to the ability of teams to qualify: CEO Andrea Nelson explains why the 2021 Women's World Cup was postponed

Andrea Nelson, CEO of the ICC Women's World Cup, confirmed that the reason for the postponement of the event was down to "ability of the team's to qualify" rather than New Zealand's success in combating the virus.

On Friday (August 7), the International Cricket Council announced their decision to postpone the 2021 event by 12 months. Nelson admitted that while the COVID-19 pandemic had made planning and preparation for the event difficult, the postponement had little to do with the country's ability to safely host the mega event.

"It came down to the ability of the teams to qualify," Nelson told NZME. "We've done a lot of contingency planning around this event, to give it the best possible chance of proceeding successfully – ultimately the decision to delay it comes down to cricket. No qualifying tournaments have been able to be held yet, so in order to qualify and then compete in the event in 2021 – it was too risky."

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So far, five teams - Australia, England, India, South Africa and hosts New Zealand - have qualified for the World Cup in 2022, with three teams yet to book their place.

The qualifying event - originally meant to be held in Sri Lanka in July - was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ICC, however, have been unable to reschedule the tournament so far.

There was talk of the tournament being held in the last week of November in Dubai, but that left teams with little to no time to prepare. Nelson said the delay will now give all teams the best possible chance to do well at the World Cup.

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"We've got teams that can't train, they can't assemble – in the case of a country like the West Indies they can't leave their islands to bring the team together – and that's just not a feasible way to ask a team to prepare for their pinnacle event. Having the tournament in 2022 gives the best possible chance for teams around the world to train, prepare, and come and compete in their pinnacle event."

Nelson added that while hosting bi-lateral series was possible at the moment, a world tournament that involves as many as eight teams and plenty of broadcast personnel, etc would have been a very difficult task.

"A one team bilateral is a very different equation to bringing eight teams, broadcast staff – we're looking at bringing about 600 people into New Zealand," she concluded.