Dubai, Aug 12:
A month after England were crowned world champions, the ICC today launched Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2, a part of the new four-year qualification for the 2023 World Cup.
The League 2 will witness seven teams — Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Scotland, UAE and the USA — contesting in 126 One Day Internationals (ODIs), to be played across 21 tri-series.
Each of the seven teams will play 36 ODIs over a period of two-and-half-year from August 2019 to January 2022.
The inaugural League 2 series will be played among Scotland, PNG and Oman at Mannofield Park, Scotland from August 14 to 21, which will include four ODIs for each team, worth two points per ODI that will contribute to the Men’s CWC League 2 table.
After the completion of 21 tri-series, the top three teams will confirm their places in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2022.
The bottom four teams will drop into the Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-Off 2022, which is a repechage event to the Global Qualifier, and will be joined by the winner of Challenge League A and B.
The top two teams from the Play-Off will keep their hopes alive of participating in the 2023 World Cup, by qualifying for the Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2022.
ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley is excited by the prospect of four years of competitive men’s 50-over cricket.
“The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup provided us with great entertainment and competitive cricket, I am delighted to see the start of the qualification process to India 2023. The new structure has given meaningful context to bilateral cricket for the Men’s Cricket World Super League, but also more competitive opportunities to Associate Members,” he said. (PTI)