9261 Alyssa Healy_70

Event technical committee confirms Alyssa Healy can replace Jodie Fields

9261 Alyssa Healy_70

The International Cricket Council has confirmed the event technical committee of the ICC Women's World Twenty20 2010 has approved the replacement of Australia captain Jodie Fields with Alyssa Healy for the tournament, which runs from 5 to 16 May in the West Indies.

The confirmation was conveyed to Cricket Australia (CA) on behalf of the event technical committee on Thursday.

Australia wicketkeeper Fields was declared unfit by her board for the entire event and will not travel to St Kitts.

The 20-year-old Healy has played in five ODIs and five Twenty20s for Australia and most recently kept wicket for her country against New Zealand in a Twenty20 match in Christchurch at the end of February.

The Queensland-born wicketkeeper is the niece of former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy.

Alex Blackwell will now assume the captaincy of the Australia side while Shelley Nitschke becomes vice-captain.

Any injury-based replacement requires a written submission to the event technical committee along with a diagnosis from a medical practitioner as to the extent of the injury. Once replaced, a player cannot return to the squad.

As with all players in the tournament, the eligibility of a replacement player is subject to approval by the ICC before that player can be officially added to the squad.

The event technical committee of the ICC World Twenty20 2010 (Men's and Women's tournament) consists of David Richardson (ICC, chairman), Robert Bryan (Tournament Director), Campbell Jamieson (IDI representative), Tony Howard (WICB representative), Alan Wilkins (independent nomination) and Sanjay Manjrekar (independent nomination).

Australia begins its tournament on 5 May against ICC World Twenty20 2009 champions England in St Kitts with the match starting at 14.00 local time (GMT -4).

The ICC Women's World Twenty20 2010 runs from 5 to 16 May with the group stages being held on St Kitts while the semi-finals and final will be staged as double-headers with the men's tournament on St Lucia and Barbados.