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spiderbraidsTime for some more randomness... I obliquely referenced this in an otherwise unrelated Winx cuts article, but here's a timely deep dive on the Thailand women's cricket team :-) I had actually wanted to contact with a site that covered non-mainstream cricketing nations about this stuff, but their contact form didn't work even after I filled out the necessary fields (no, I didn't try to submit what you're about to read into the form, just a few talking points) I also prepared something to potentially serve as the bones of an article on the team... and here it is :-)
With the 2025 Women's ODI World Cup qualifiers coming up in a few days, it's time to write about one of the participating teams who, to paraphrase a certain rock song, could have had it so much better for the past few years...
Between 2019 and 2022, the Thailand women's cricket team emerged as one of the standouts of the Associate cricket world, achieving a record 17-match win streak in T20s in 2019, culminating in their qualification for the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup. Their momentum continued as they threatened to upend the status quo at the 2021 Women's ODI World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe, defeating Bangladesh and securing a spot in the Super Six stage, until the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their progress: The qualifiers were abandoned due to concerns about the Omicron variant in South Africa, and the ICC upheld the status quo, using existing women's ODI rankings to qualify teams and preventing Thailand from qualifying for either the World Cup or the ICC Women's Championship. The latter could have served as an acceptable consolation prize, offering a constant schedule of matches against top teams and crucial ICC funding. To add insult to injury, just days after Thailand's victory over Bangladesh had put them in a strong position, it was Bangladesh that ultimately qualified for both events, leaving Thailand's upset as little more than a footnote, especially given the effort Thailand had put into preparing for the qualifiers, including tours to South Africa and Zimbabwe months earlier. Jeremy Ludlow even tweeted that despite their performance, Thailand "might as well not even have bothered to turn up in Zimbabwe", since as an Associate team, they had no ranking to use in the first place (!)
It should be noted that, although Thailand were leading their group with three wins when the qualifiers were abandoned, both Pakistan and Bangladesh were on two wins and would likely have overtaken them in their final matches, as they faced weaker opponents and had a better net run rate than Thailand, and it seems likely that Thailand's fate, at least regarding Women's Championship qualification, would have come down to a Super Six stage match against Ireland. However, the ICC's decision to use women's ODI rankings after the qualifiers were abandoned effectively disqualified Associate teams from qualifying, and essentially granted Ireland automatic entry to the Championship, with all the experience and benefits it provides. Although Ireland finished last in the Championship and will participate in the qualifiers, they did manage to secure three wins, including one against England.
(An aside, when Nishadh Rego wrote about Thailand being deprived of their opportunity to qualify, he mentioned in an aside about the then-upcoming, ultimately-delayed 2022 Asian Games cricket tournament that "cancellations will certainly not result in medals being granted to India, or Pakistan based on rankings." Ironically, that's exactly how the men's tournament was decided, as a rain-out in the gold medal match gave India the gold over Afghanistan... Meanwhile on the women's side, strictly speaking, Rego's statement turned out to be true, but only because the rain-outs happened in the quarterfinals, and the only QF played to completion was the one where Sri Lanka beat Thailand; the other QFs did indeed just advance the higher-ranked team to the semis, and another Southeast Asia based team, Indonesia, complained that "determining the winner without a match is not in accordance with the spirit of the Asian Games which prioritizes friendship and fair play" after being rained out of the tournament)
Meanwhile, although Thailand did end up beating Pakistan at the 2022 Asia Cup (ironically, two years after being rained out at their previous encounter at the Women's T20 World Cup) before qualifying for the semifinals, Thailand have not qualified for any global women's cricket tournaments since (nor beaten any full members, other than Zimbabwe), and it seems that other Associate teams are catching up: In 2022, the women's U19 team were pipped to qualification for the inaugural Women's U19 T20 World Cup by the UAE, and the senior team has since been beaten by the UAE in their last two encounters; while in 2024, the Women's U19 T20 World Cup qualifiers saw the U19 women get decisively trounced by eventual winners Nepal in both their matches (as well as the UAE again), while the senior team lost to Scotland twice in Abu Dhabi, once in the Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier warm-ups, then again at the actual qualifier to not even get out of the groups... While I don't claim to know the ins-and-outs of how Thailand cricket is run, one can't help but think that their relative lack of matches against meaningful opposition and funding compared to what Women's Championship participants receive has played a significant part in their apparent decline (and it doesn't help matters that cricket is decidedly nowhere near being a mainstream sport in Thailand; where women's sport is concerned, most of the local press tends to be for golf, volleyball and badminton) As it stands, whereas Ireland played 24 ODIs against 8 teams as part of the Women's Championship, give or take a few rain-outs (plus several ODIs with non-Championship opponents), in that time Thailand has only played 9 total against 2 teams (Netherlands and Zimbabwe), and none in over a year (!) And although Ireland have played fewer T20s since the start of 2022, 46, against Thailand's 60, when counting just full member opponents, Ireland have 32 vs Thailand's 17.
(Aside #2: Much of the Thailand women's success was on the back of Nattakan Chantham, and it was she who posted the image of her teammates' phones with the 2022 World Cup logo after the abandonment of the qualifiers... She has not made a half-century against a full member since she did it against Zimbabwe at home in April 2023; in fact, she has not even cracked double digits against a full member since (duck against SL at the Asian Games, 6 against Ireland at in World Cup T20 qualifier warmups, 5 against SL at at the qualifiers proper), and also skipped the 2024 Asia Cup, before returning for the 2025 Nepal Tri-Nation series)
Although 2025 will see Thailand participate in their 3rd Women's ODI World Cup qualifiers (with most of the same players from the previous go-round), there has been some further insult to injury, as the ICC has announced Zimbabwe will be joining the next cycle of the Women's Championship, instead of having it be decided by the qualifiers, where the Lady Chevrons aren't even participating, or even the women's ODI rankings, where Thailand, Netherlands, and Scotland are above them. Not only that, the Zimbabwe women lost 5 of their 6 matches in a T20 series played just weeks after the announcement... against Namibia and the UAE (!) Although Thailand were amongst the teams arguing for their own structured ODI league along the lines of the men's League 2, the best the ICC is willing to offer is, to quote the ICC's own press release, "two annual T20 International tournaments between 2025 and 2028 which would offer structured cricket with context to 24 teams in the pathway ahead of the 16-team ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2030" (which wouldn't be the first time Thailand was thrown a token gesture by the ICC, after they were given ODI status, but not structured competition to go with it, after the brouhaha over the abandoned qualifiers) There's also mention of using T20 rankings to decide ODI status, which de Jong thought was dumb, but anyways, in all likelihood, the Thailand women will participate in at least one of those tournaments, and it remains to be seen what kind of effect having regular competition will have for them in the future. One thing is for certain, however: at least for this generation, the ICC are arguably not blameless in squandering their best years, without even letting them decide their fate on the field.
I should note that I wouldn't profess to be any sort of expert on Thai women's cric; it never gets mentioned in the local press, and I only heard of the team's existence from AFP's May 2022 article on their World Cup heartache... That said, I've followed most of their games online since then :-)
With the 2025 Women's ODI World Cup qualifiers coming up in a few days, it's time to write about one of the participating teams who, to paraphrase a certain rock song, could have had it so much better for the past few years...
Between 2019 and 2022, the Thailand women's cricket team emerged as one of the standouts of the Associate cricket world, achieving a record 17-match win streak in T20s in 2019, culminating in their qualification for the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup. Their momentum continued as they threatened to upend the status quo at the 2021 Women's ODI World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe, defeating Bangladesh and securing a spot in the Super Six stage, until the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their progress: The qualifiers were abandoned due to concerns about the Omicron variant in South Africa, and the ICC upheld the status quo, using existing women's ODI rankings to qualify teams and preventing Thailand from qualifying for either the World Cup or the ICC Women's Championship. The latter could have served as an acceptable consolation prize, offering a constant schedule of matches against top teams and crucial ICC funding. To add insult to injury, just days after Thailand's victory over Bangladesh had put them in a strong position, it was Bangladesh that ultimately qualified for both events, leaving Thailand's upset as little more than a footnote, especially given the effort Thailand had put into preparing for the qualifiers, including tours to South Africa and Zimbabwe months earlier. Jeremy Ludlow even tweeted that despite their performance, Thailand "might as well not even have bothered to turn up in Zimbabwe", since as an Associate team, they had no ranking to use in the first place (!)
It should be noted that, although Thailand were leading their group with three wins when the qualifiers were abandoned, both Pakistan and Bangladesh were on two wins and would likely have overtaken them in their final matches, as they faced weaker opponents and had a better net run rate than Thailand, and it seems likely that Thailand's fate, at least regarding Women's Championship qualification, would have come down to a Super Six stage match against Ireland. However, the ICC's decision to use women's ODI rankings after the qualifiers were abandoned effectively disqualified Associate teams from qualifying, and essentially granted Ireland automatic entry to the Championship, with all the experience and benefits it provides. Although Ireland finished last in the Championship and will participate in the qualifiers, they did manage to secure three wins, including one against England.
(An aside, when Nishadh Rego wrote about Thailand being deprived of their opportunity to qualify, he mentioned in an aside about the then-upcoming, ultimately-delayed 2022 Asian Games cricket tournament that "cancellations will certainly not result in medals being granted to India, or Pakistan based on rankings." Ironically, that's exactly how the men's tournament was decided, as a rain-out in the gold medal match gave India the gold over Afghanistan... Meanwhile on the women's side, strictly speaking, Rego's statement turned out to be true, but only because the rain-outs happened in the quarterfinals, and the only QF played to completion was the one where Sri Lanka beat Thailand; the other QFs did indeed just advance the higher-ranked team to the semis, and another Southeast Asia based team, Indonesia, complained that "determining the winner without a match is not in accordance with the spirit of the Asian Games which prioritizes friendship and fair play" after being rained out of the tournament)
Meanwhile, although Thailand did end up beating Pakistan at the 2022 Asia Cup (ironically, two years after being rained out at their previous encounter at the Women's T20 World Cup) before qualifying for the semifinals, Thailand have not qualified for any global women's cricket tournaments since (nor beaten any full members, other than Zimbabwe), and it seems that other Associate teams are catching up: In 2022, the women's U19 team were pipped to qualification for the inaugural Women's U19 T20 World Cup by the UAE, and the senior team has since been beaten by the UAE in their last two encounters; while in 2024, the Women's U19 T20 World Cup qualifiers saw the U19 women get decisively trounced by eventual winners Nepal in both their matches (as well as the UAE again), while the senior team lost to Scotland twice in Abu Dhabi, once in the Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier warm-ups, then again at the actual qualifier to not even get out of the groups... While I don't claim to know the ins-and-outs of how Thailand cricket is run, one can't help but think that their relative lack of matches against meaningful opposition and funding compared to what Women's Championship participants receive has played a significant part in their apparent decline (and it doesn't help matters that cricket is decidedly nowhere near being a mainstream sport in Thailand; where women's sport is concerned, most of the local press tends to be for golf, volleyball and badminton) As it stands, whereas Ireland played 24 ODIs against 8 teams as part of the Women's Championship, give or take a few rain-outs (plus several ODIs with non-Championship opponents), in that time Thailand has only played 9 total against 2 teams (Netherlands and Zimbabwe), and none in over a year (!) And although Ireland have played fewer T20s since the start of 2022, 46, against Thailand's 60, when counting just full member opponents, Ireland have 32 vs Thailand's 17.
(Aside #2: Much of the Thailand women's success was on the back of Nattakan Chantham, and it was she who posted the image of her teammates' phones with the 2022 World Cup logo after the abandonment of the qualifiers... She has not made a half-century against a full member since she did it against Zimbabwe at home in April 2023; in fact, she has not even cracked double digits against a full member since (duck against SL at the Asian Games, 6 against Ireland at in World Cup T20 qualifier warmups, 5 against SL at at the qualifiers proper), and also skipped the 2024 Asia Cup, before returning for the 2025 Nepal Tri-Nation series)
Although 2025 will see Thailand participate in their 3rd Women's ODI World Cup qualifiers (with most of the same players from the previous go-round), there has been some further insult to injury, as the ICC has announced Zimbabwe will be joining the next cycle of the Women's Championship, instead of having it be decided by the qualifiers, where the Lady Chevrons aren't even participating, or even the women's ODI rankings, where Thailand, Netherlands, and Scotland are above them. Not only that, the Zimbabwe women lost 5 of their 6 matches in a T20 series played just weeks after the announcement... against Namibia and the UAE (!) Although Thailand were amongst the teams arguing for their own structured ODI league along the lines of the men's League 2, the best the ICC is willing to offer is, to quote the ICC's own press release, "two annual T20 International tournaments between 2025 and 2028 which would offer structured cricket with context to 24 teams in the pathway ahead of the 16-team ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2030" (which wouldn't be the first time Thailand was thrown a token gesture by the ICC, after they were given ODI status, but not structured competition to go with it, after the brouhaha over the abandoned qualifiers) There's also mention of using T20 rankings to decide ODI status, which de Jong thought was dumb, but anyways, in all likelihood, the Thailand women will participate in at least one of those tournaments, and it remains to be seen what kind of effect having regular competition will have for them in the future. One thing is for certain, however: at least for this generation, the ICC are arguably not blameless in squandering their best years, without even letting them decide their fate on the field.
I should note that I wouldn't profess to be any sort of expert on Thai women's cric; it never gets mentioned in the local press, and I only heard of the team's existence from AFP's May 2022 article on their World Cup heartache... That said, I've followed most of their games online since then :-)
