eBusiness Weekly
As we near the business end of the Cricket World Cup 2023 qualification pathway, 15 teams are still in the race for the final three available spots.
From 32 teams gunning for 10 spots back in 2019, seven already boast a spot at the Cricket World Cup already, while 10 teams are out of the running.
The final stages of the Super League, the Cricket World Cup Qualifier and the Qualifier Playoff will all dictate how the final spots will be determined.
Six months out from the start of the Cricket World Cup, a look at how the field currently looks.
The first eight spots of the 10-team World Cup go to the top eight finishers of the Cricket World Cup Super League, a competition that has run over the last three years that includes the top 13 sides of world cricket.
Seven of the eight spots have been decided, with England currently leading the competition on 155 points (15 wins and a no-result).
Six other teams have point tallies already that ensure a top-eight position, with Afghanistan’s 115 points (11 wins and a no-result) the lowest for already-safe teams.
New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia are also through with their accumulated points.
The bottom five teams of Super League travel to the Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe from June 18.
While a failure in finishing in eighth spot for the four teams in the running isn’t the be all and end all, an automatic spot at the World Cup would bring a huge sigh of relief for the teams who would want to avoid going through the fickleness of the Qualifier.
The West Indies currently sit in the eighth and last automatic spot (88 points), though have already completed their 24-match cycle, and must watch the rest of the competition play out without their influence.
To compound their woes, two points were deducted from their total for slow over rates against New Zealand in August, opening the door further for the chasing pack.
With 10 points for wins in the competition, Sri Lanka (77 points) and Ireland (68) have three matches left in their campaign to overtake the West Indies.
Sri Lanka are in New Zealand to close out their campaign, while Ireland host Bangladesh in May. South Africa (78 points) meanwhile have two matches left, both against the Netherlands in a home make-up series.
Just one of these four teams will avoid finishing in the bottom five of Super League, with the other three joining Zimbabwe (12th in Super League)
and The Netherlands (13th in Super League) in the Qualifier beginning on June 18.
Of the 10 teams playing at the Cricket World Cup Qualifier, five are known, of which three come from the recently concluded League 2 competition.
Scotland roared to the top position of League 2, while a strong start to the campaign from Zeeshan Maqsood’s Oman put them ahead of the chasing pack.
The third and final automatic spot was decided in the last of the competition’s 126 matches.
After an incredible tournament comeback, winning 11 of their last 12 matches to go from sixth to third, Nepal locked in the third automatic spot for the Cricket World Cup Qualifier from League 2.
The final day result meant Namibia finished in fourth, consigning them to the Qualifier Playoff, effectively a repackage tournament for the bottom four teams in League 2, and the winner of each of the six-team Challenge League groups (effectively the third tier of international one day cricket), are all still alive in World Cup qualification. — icc-cricket.com
