Kuala Lumpur, Jun 16 (IANS): Asian Cricket Council president Jay Shah expressed his elation over the return of the ACC Women's T20 Championship. 2022 will see the return of the Championship after a hiatus of over nine years. The tournament will be hosted by Malaysian Cricket Association starting from June 17 and ending on June 25.

"The last time the ACC Women's T20 Championship was in 2013. The revival is long overdue, and this, I believe, will set the tone for us to move faster towards the development of women's pathway programmes in Asia. The development of women's cricket programmes is an integral component that must be pushed forward," said Shah in a statement.

Ten nations will be vying to win the qualifying round of this tournament that will take them to the main event, the ACC Women's T20 Asia Cup. The matches will be played at Kinrara Oval and YSD UKM Oval. The participating countries are UAE, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Nepal, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Bahrain, Singapore and Bhutan.

Shah, who also serves as the Honorary Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), added, "With this tournament, in addition to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Thailand, two more countries will be awarded the opportunity to make it to the Asia Cup."

Teams will be divided into two groups and shall play a single round-robin lending the top two teams from each group to qualify for the semi-finals followed by the finals. Group A has Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore and the UAE while Bahrain, Bhutan, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Nepal form Group B.