No relocation of St Lucia's World T20 games despite rain threat

The remaining Group A Women's World T20 matches will remain in St Lucia, despite the risk of further washouts. The ICC had been exploring the option of moving some of the matches to Antigua due to the state of the waterlogged Gros Islet ground and the forecast of more heavy rain.

But while there have been serious concerns over whether the remaining matches can be played, the ICC deemed that, quite apart from the logistics issues and costs of relocation, there was no guarantee that a relocation to Antigua would actually result in any more cricket being possible.

The weather forecast for the coming week in Antigua is not encouraging, with heavy rain forecast, and the ICC reckon it would need 72 hours to make the Vivian Richards stadium match-ready. Instead, they are currently attempting to fly over a second super-sopper to assist groundstaff in St Lucia.

The average rainfall in November for St Lucia is 160mm but in the past 11 days 236mm has fallen, throwing plans into chaos.

England's scheduled match against Sri Lanka was abandoned without a ball being bowled on Saturday, with England captain Heather Knight describing the outfield as the wettest she had ever seen. Training sessions have been cancelled and England have been improvising by turning the space under the grandstand into an impromptu batting track.

Although only two Group A fixtures have been scheduled so far in the tournament, the conditions in St Lucia have been so unplayable that there is a genuine concern that none of the island's nine fixtures will be completed. The only Group A match to have taken place so far was West Indies' victory over Bangladesh at the tournament's other venue in Guyana.

If there is no further play possibly at Gros Islet the two highest seeded teams, England and West Indies, will go through to the final four. But if only some games are washed out then the positions within that group may become tightly contested.