The maiden edition of the ICC U19 Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup finally gets underway in South Africa from January 14-29 with 16 countries battling for the glittering trophy. The competition promises to be exciting as the players and their countries seek to prove their mettle at the biggest stage. Times Sports takes a look at some facts and statistics as the tournament kicks off. Host nation South Africa is the only team in the tournament which has no player with senior international experience in their squad. Rwanda’s all-rounder Henriette Ishimwe was among the best two young African cricketers selected from Africa last year for the Fairbank tournament in Dubai. Shafali Verma of India is the most experienced player going into the tournament, At just 18, she has already played 74 international matches for the Asian giants, scoring 2004 runs, including 12 fifties. Verma holds the world record for the most runs by any player before the age of 19 in women's T20. She is also the only women's player in cricket to feature in more than 50 T20 games before the age of 19. And for Australia, about 80 percent of the country’s squad members have top-flight experience in the WBBL which is the top cricket league in the country. 18-year-old skipper Theertha Satish of United Arab Emirates (UAE) is among the high profile players going to the tournament having already appeared in 33 senior T20I games, scoring 823 runs at an average of 35.78 and a strike-rate of 109.58. Qualifications Hosts South Africa, along with Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe did not partake in the qualifiers as they qualified automatically for the tournament because of being permanent members of ICC. The United States also qualified automatically, since they were the only eligible team to compete from the Americas regional group. Indonesia defeated Papua New Guinea in their three-match series to win the East Asia-Pacific zone to qualify. It was the first time that Indonesia had qualified for an ICC World Cup tournament at any level Emerging giants Rwanda won the African Qualifiers to qualify for the World Cup. It was for the first time that Rwanda had qualified for an ICC World Cup tournament at any level. This is also the first ICC Women's World Cup at any level for Scotland, United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe and the United States.
