A series of six ICC World Cricket League (WCL) tournaments, as well as a series of pre-qualifying regional tournaments, and the 2009 Cricket World Cup Qualifier were played between January 2007 and April 2009. It was the first use of the World Cricket League structure. Through the WCL tournaments, teams could advance to the World Cup Qualifier, which could lead to qualification for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. 30 Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC participated in the events.
 Official logo | |
| Administrator(s) | International Cricket Council |
|---|---|
| Cricket format | One Day International List A |
| Tournament format(s) | Round-robin and knockout |
| Participants | 30 (from 87 nations) |
| Most runs |  Jeremy Frith (381)[citation needed] |
| Most wickets |  Qamar Saeed (19)[citation needed] |
The Afghanistan national cricket team ascended from Division Five to Division One by winning three of these tournaments and performing well in the World Cup Qualifier.[1]
Structure edit
The league structure was organised with the five global divisions.[2] The regional tournaments were administered by the five Development Regions of the International Cricket Council: Africa, Americas, Asia, East Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
Summary edit
The following is the summary of World Cricket League and its structure. This was followed by the International Cricket Council.
The above diagram shows the chronological order and structure of the divisions within the World Cricket League. From left to right the chronology of the divisions is indicated; from top to bottom the hierarchy within the competition. The arrows indicate the number of teams promoted and relegated between leagues
Tournaments summary edit
| Details | Dates | Host nation(s) | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Winner | Result | Runner-up | |||
| 2007 Division One |
29 January – 7 February 2007 |  Kenya
|
Nairobi Gymkhana Club, Nairobi | Kenya 158/2 (37.5 overs) |
Kenya won by 8 wickets Scorecard |
 Scotland155 all out (47 overs) |
| 2007 Division Three |
27 May – 2 June 2007 |  Australia
|
Gardens Oval, Darwin |  Uganda241/8 (50 overs) |
Uganda won by 91 runs scorecard |
 Argentina150 all out (46.3 overs) |
| 2007 Division Two |
24 November – 1 December 2007 |  Namibia
|
Wanderers Cricket Ground, Windhoek |  United Arab Emirates347/8 (50 overs) |
United Arab Emirates won by 67 runs scorecard |
 Oman280 all out (43.2 overs) |
| 2008 Division Five |
23–31 May 2008 |  Jersey
|
Grainville, St Saviour |  Afghanistan81/8 (37.4 overs) |
Afghanistan won by 2 wickets Scorecard |
Jersey 80 all out (39.5 overs) |
| 2008 Division Four[3][4] |
4–11 October 2008 |  Tanzania
|
Kinondoni Ground, Dar es Salaam | Afghanistan 179 all out (49.4 overs) |
Afghanistan won by 57 runs Scorecard |
 Hong Kong122 all out (45.0 overs) |
| 2009 Division Three[5][6] |
24–31 January 2009 | Argentina
|
Belgrano Athletic Club, Buenos Aires | Afghanistan 8 points, +0.971(NRR) |
Afghanistan topped points table Table |
Uganda 8 points, +0.768(NRR) |
| 2009 WC Qualifier |
1–19 April 2009 |  South Africa
|
SuperSport Park, Centurion |  Ireland188/1 (42.3 overs) |
Ireland won by 9 wickets Scorecard |
 Canada185 all out (48 overs) |
Teams edit
| Team | Division at start |
2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Division at end | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Div One | Div Three | Div Two[n 1] | Div Five[n 2] | Div Four | Div Three | WCQ[n 3] | |||
 Bermuda |
1 | 6th | 9th  |
2 | |||||
| Canada |
1 | 4th | 2nd  ‡ |
1 | |||||
| Ireland |
1 | 5th | 1st ‡ |
1 | |||||
| Kenya |
1 | 1st | 4th ‡ |
1 | |||||
 Netherlands |
1 | 3rd | 3rd ‡ |
1 | |||||
| Scotland |
1 | 2nd | 6th |
1 | |||||
| Afghanistan |
5 | 1st  |
1st |
1st | 5th |
1 | |||
| Argentina[n 4] |
5 | 2nd † |
6th |
6th |
4 | ||||
 Bahamas |
5 | 11th |
R | ||||||
 Botswana |
5 | 6th |
6 | ||||||
 Cayman Islands |
3 | 4th |
5th |
4 | |||||
 Denmark |
2 | 4th | 12th |
3 | |||||
 Fiji |
3 | 8th |
5th |
5 | |||||
 Germany |
5 | 7th |
R | ||||||
| Hong Kong |
3 | 5th |
2nd |
4th |
3 | ||||
 Italy |
3 | 7th |
3rd |
4 | |||||
 Japan |
5 | 10th |
7 | ||||||
| Jersey |
5 | 2nd |
6th |
5 | |||||
 Mozambique |
5 | 8th |
R | ||||||
| Namibia |
2 | 3rd | 8th |
2 | |||||
 Nepal |
5 | 3rd |
5 | ||||||
 Norway |
5 | 9th |
6 | ||||||
| Oman |
2 | 2nd | 11th |
3 | |||||
 Papua New Guinea |
3 | 3rd |
3rd |
3 | |||||
 Singapore |
5 | 5th |
6 | ||||||
| Tanzania |
3 | 6th |
4th |
4 | |||||
| Uganda |
3 | 1st † |
5th |
2nd | 10th |
2 | |||
| United Arab Emirates |
2 | 1st | 7th |
2 | |||||
 United States[n 4] |
3 | 4th |
5 | ||||||
 Vanuatu |
5 | 12th |
R | ||||||
| Team with ODI status | |
| Team qualifies for 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier | |
|
|
Team promoted to next division |
|
|
Team remains in the division |
|
|
Team relegated to a lower division |
| R | Regional tournament |
| † | Qualified for the High Performance Program (HPP) |
| ‡ | Qualified for the 2011 Cricket World Cup |
- ^ Due to the Asian Cricket Council's decision to handle development of their member nations themselves, both Namibia and Denmark joined the HPP as of 1 April 2007
- ^ Japan were relegated to 2009 Global Division Seven. All other teams 7th or lower were distributed into lower divisions.
- ^ 1st to 6th received official One Day International status for the following four years. 1st to 8th qualified for the ICC Intercontinental Cup.
- ^ a b The United States had their membership suspended and were replaced by Argentina in Division Three in 2007.[7] Upon reinstatement, they were assigned to Division Five in 2008.
References edit
- ^ Williamson, Martin (10 January 2011). "ICC World Cricket League". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
- ^ Opportunities for Europe as WCL expands Archived 6 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine, by Rod Lyall, published by CricketEurope, on 10 September 2006
- ^ World Cup dream for twelve nations cricinfo.com 1 May 2008
- ^ Afghanistan claim another title cricinfo.com 11 October 2008
- ^ USA return to the fold cricinfo.com 18 May 2008
- ^ Match schedule cricinfo.com 21 January 2009
- ^ "ICC Board suspends USA Cricket Association". Archived from the original on 12 March 2007. Retrieved 11 March 2007.