Twenty20 for all women's World Cup sides

The eight teams that participated in the 2009 women's World Cup will not only play in the World Twenty20 later this year in England but also the 2010 World Twenty20 in West Indies. The ICC confirmed to Cricinfo that the women's committee had taken the decision at their meeting in Sydney on Friday and Saturday.

The ICC had earlier announced a women's World Twenty20 in 2010 to coincide with the men's but had not elaborated on the number of teams and their qualification route.

With the next world qualifiers of any description only due to take place in 2011, this means that there is no opportunity for any qualifying tournament before that.

How the groups will be split up has not been fully decided yet, although it will be based on how the teams go in their inaugural Twenty20 tournament and also their world rankings.

Pakistan and West Indies have booked their place in the 2011 qualifiers already, by coming fifth and sixth at this World Cup, while the teams below them will have to earn their spot in the qualifiers.

The qualifiers, then, will comprise Pakistan, West Indies, and the top two teams from each of Asia, Europe and Africa, with one spot available for the Americas and EAP. There has been talk of expanding the number of places available in the 2013 World Cup to ten, but this is still to be decided.