Cricket World Cup qualification

Cricket World Cup qualification is the process national cricket teams go through to qualify for the Cricket World Cup. The Cricket World Cup is a global event, and qualification is used to reduce the large field of participants from about 100 to 10–14. The qualification process has started as early as almost 7 years before the World Cup.

History

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From the first World Cup in 1975 up to the 2019 World Cup, the majority of teams taking part qualified automatically. Until the 2015 World Cup this was mostly through having Full Membership of the ICC, and for the 2019 World Cup this was mostly through ranking position in the ICC ODI Championship.

Since the second World Cup in 1979 up to the 2019 World Cup, the teams that qualified automatically have been joined by a small number of others who qualified for the World Cup through the qualification process. The number of teams qualifying for the World Cup changed from event to event. The first qualifying tournament being the ICC Trophy;[1] later the process expanding with pre-qualifying tournaments. Pre-qualifying tournaments were held within the five ICC regional bodies (Africa, Americas, Asia, East Asia-Pacific, Europe), and organized by their respective councils.

For the 2011 World Cup onwards, the past pre-qualifying processes were replaced by the World Cricket League, administered by the ICC; and the ICC Trophy became known as the ICC World Cup Qualifier,[2] and this remained the culmination of the qualification process and became the final stage of the World Cricket League competition. The World Cricket League was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status. All Associate members of the ICC were able to qualify for the World Cup.

While 12 teams participated in the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier and the top 4 teams qualified for the 2011 Cricket World Cup, at the ICC Chief Executives' Committee meeting in September 2011, the ICC decided on a new qualifying format for the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Two teams from the top tier of the pre-qualifying tournament, the 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship, qualified directly and did not compete in the 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, which decided the remaining two places.[3][4]

For the 2019 World Cup, the host and the seven highest-ranked sides on the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings as on 30 September 2017 qualified directly for the event proper. The four bottom-ranked sides were joined by six teams from the ICC World Cricket League in the 10-team ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018, and the top two sides completed the 10-team World Cup line-up.

For the 2023 World Cup, only the host nation qualified automatically. 32 teams were divided into three leagues—Super League, League 2 and Challenge League—each with different paths to World Cup qualification. The leagues and supplementary qualifier and play-off tournaments also determined promotion and relegation between the leagues from one World Cup cycle to the next.[5] The fourth World Cricket League competition was used for the initial placement of teams into the leagues for the 2023 World Cup qualifying, and has now been abolished.

Team performances

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The teams that qualified automatically each time, and the performances of the other teams in the final qualifying tournament, are as follows.

World Cup: 1975 WC 1979 WC 1983 WC 1987 WC 1992 WC 1996 WC 1999 WC 2003 WC 2007 WC 2011 WC 2015 WC 2019 WC 2023 WC 2027 WC
Qualifying
Tournament
:
None 1979 ICC
Trophy
1982 ICC
Trophy
1986 ICC
Trophy
1990 ICC
Trophy
1994 ICC
Trophy
1997 ICC
Trophy
2001 ICC
Trophy
2005 ICC
Trophy
2009
WC
Qual
2011
WCL
C'ship
2014
WC
Qual
2018
WC
Qual
2023
WC
Qual
2027
WC
Qual
Pre-qualifying: 2007 Qual 2007–09 WCL 2009–14 WCL 2012–18 WCL 2017–19 WCL
Africa
  Kenya R1 R1 SF 2nd 2nd Auto (O) Auto (O) 4th 6th 5th =27th
  Namibia R1 15th 2nd 7th 8th 7th 6th 19th
  South Africa Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 8th Auto (H)
  Uganda 12th 10th 10th =23rd
  Zimbabwe 1st 1st 1st Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) 3rd 12th Auto (H)
Americas
  Argentina R1 R1 R1 R1 21st R1
  Bermuda SF 2nd 4th R1 4th 9th R1 4th 9th =31st
  Canada 2nd R1 R1 R2 R2 7th 3rd 3rd 2nd 8th 8th 20th
  United States R1 R1 R1 R2 R1 12th 7th 10th 18th
  West Indies Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) 2nd 13th
Asia
  Afghanistan 5th 2nd 1st 7th
  Bangladesh R1 4th R1 SF R2 1st Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 3rd
  Hong Kong R1 R1 R1 R2 8th R1 3rd 10th =25th
  India Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) Auto (H)
  Malaysia R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 16th R1 =29th
    Nepal R1 9th 8th 16th
  Oman 9th 11th 14th
  Pakistan Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 5th
  Qatar =25th
  Singapore R1 R1 R1 19th 14th R1 =27th
  Sri Lanka Auto (I) 1st Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 9th
  United Arab Emirates 1st 10th 5th 6th 7th 3rd 2nd 6th 17th
East Asia - Pacific
  Australia Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 6th
  Fiji R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 11th R1
  New Zealand Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 1st
  Papua New Guinea R1 3rd R1 R2 R1 13th R1 11th 4th 9th 22nd
  Vanuatu =31st
Europe
  Denmark SF 3rd R2 R1 5th 6th 8th 12th =23rd
  England Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (H) 2nd
  France R1
  Germany R1
  Gibraltar R1 R1 R1 20th =19th R1
  Ireland R2 4th 8th 2nd 1st 1st 5th 15th
  Israel R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 22nd R1
  Italy =19th R1 =29th
  Jersey 21st
  Netherlands R1 R1 2nd 2nd 3rd 6th 1st 5th 3rd 4th 7th 7th 10th
  Scotland 3rd 4th 1st 6th 5th 1st 4th 11th
Defunct teams
  East Africa Auto (I) R1 R1 R1
  East and Central Africa R1 18th 17th R1
  Wales R1
  West Africa R1 17th 18th R1

Key:

Auto (F) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically through having Full Membership of the ICC
Auto (H) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically as Host
Auto (I) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically by Invitation
Auto (O) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically through having ODI Status
Auto (R) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically by Ranking position in the ICC ODI Championship
Team qualified for Cricket World Cup through the Qualifying Tournament
R1/R2 Team reached First Round/Second Round in the Qualifying Tournament
SF Team reached Semi-Final in the Qualifying Tournament (no third-place play-off)
1st/2nd/etc Team finished 1st/2nd/etc in the Qualifying Tournament
Team failed to reach final Qualifying Tournament

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Cricinfo – 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland
  2. ^ World Cricket League Archived January 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine World Cricket League Overview
  3. ^ "Results of the ICC Chief Executives' Committee meeting in London". 12 September 2011. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  4. ^ "ICC spells out 2015 WC qualification plan". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Sports Media. 11 October 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  5. ^ "ICC launches the road to India 2023". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 12 August 2019.