Two women cricketers test Covid-19 positive

Two cricketers of the Bangladesh women's cricket team, who are in quarantine after returning from Zimbabwe, have tested positive for Covid-19.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) director and media committee chairman Jalal Yunus confirmed the news, saying, "They have been kept in isolation."

However, their samples have been taken again. BCB doctors are waiting for that result. The women's cricket team returned to the country on 1 December after their ICC ODI World Cup qualifying tournament.

Back in the country, they entered the 5-day quarantine at Hotel Sonagaon. No one came positive in the first round of the Covid-19 test.

However, in the second test, the two were identified. The ICC had to cancel the World Cup qualifiers after a new variant of Coronavirus had spread to South Africa, a country adjacent to Zimbabwe.

Since the tournament remained unfinished, the ICC had to choose a ranking for the team's qualification to the World Cup.

According to the rankings, Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies will play directly in the 2022 ODI World Cup. The ODI World Cup will start on 4 March, 2022, in New Zealand. The final will be held on 3 April in Christchurch.

But apart from the rankings, Bangladesh topped their Group B before the tournament was cancelled. They won two out of their three matches.

In the first match, they beat mighty Pakistan by 3 runs and then crushed the USA by 260 runs. However in their third game, they experienced a shock 18-run defeat to Thailand. Bangladesh was scheduled to play against hosts Zimbabwe before the cancellation of the tournament.