Virandeep Singh and Sharvin Muniandy's hopes of guiding Malaysia at the T20 World Cup Asian qualifiers have gone up in smoke with the cancellation of the event.
The Asian qualifiers were supposed to be held at the Kinrara Oval on Nov 9-15 with one team from there advancing to the global qualifiers for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) have, instead,
given the slot to Hong Kong based on the T20 world rankings of April, 2020.
"It is really unfortunate that Malaysia did not even get a shot at qualifying as the Asian qualifiers were cancelled and Hong Kong got the nod," said Malaysian Cricket Association chief executive officer Dinesh Muthuraman.
"Malaysia have prepared well for the event. We would have had a good chance of advancing to the global qualifiers if the Asian event was held as scheduled."
Malaysia had fancied their chances of doing well in the Asian qualifiers as they had beaten Hong Kong five times in their last six T20 matches.
Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Thailand were the other teams supposed to compete at Kinrara in the qualifiers.
However, the 14-day quarantine requirement for foreign visitors to Malaysia had apparently made several teams reluctant to come here. ICC eventually decided to cancel the event and award the qualifying slot to Hong Kong instead of postponing the tournament.
Malaysia had begun their preparation for the qualifiers under the bio-bubble system last month while Virandeep and Sharvin earned valuable exposure at the just concluded Everest Premier League (EPL) in Nepal. Virandeep's team, Chitwan Tigers, won the EPL while Sharvin's side, Bhairahawa Gladiators, reached the knockout stage.
Another event, Challenge League A, which serves as one of the qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup (50 overs), has been postponed to next year.
It was initially scheduled to be held in December at Kinrara Oval.
Malaysia were expected to compete for qualification with Canada, Singapore, Denmark, Qatar and Vanuatu.