London, Aug 9 (IANS): England captain Heather Knight said that she was "gutted" that the 2021 Women's World Cup in New Zealand has been postponed by a year and hopes it doesn't turn out to be an excuse for boards to put women's cricket on the backburner for the next 12 months.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) had announced its decision to postpone the World Cup on Friday due to the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Pretty gutted to be honest. I know tough decisions have to be made right now & it would have taken a lot of work (and $$), but it was feasible in NZ. Hopefully it's not an excuse for boards to put women's cricket on the back burner for the next 12 months with no WC to prepare for," the 2017 World Cup winning captain tweeted.

One of the concerns was that teams haven't played a match since March. New Zealand remain the hosts of the tournament.

"We have taken the decision to move the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup to give players from every competing nation, the best opportunity to be ready for the world's biggest stage and there is still a global qualifier to complete to decide the final three teams," ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said.

"There has been no women's international cricket played since the conclusion of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup earlier this year and due to the varying impact of COVID-19 globally that is likely to remain the situation for a number of the teams.

"Moving the event by 12 months gives all competing teams the chance to play a sufficient level of cricket ahead of both the qualification event and leading into a Cricket World Cup so the integrity of the tournament is maintained," he added.