ODI status on the line at World Cricket League

ODI status on the line at World Cricket League

WINDHOEK: The ICC’s decade-long 50-over competition for Associate members, the World Cricket League, will see its final tournament play out at Windhoek this week, making way for the new Cricket World Cup Leagues, which will provide the structure for international one-day competition from this year forward.

For 26 of the 32 participants in the new structure (including, for the first time, the ICC’s 12 Full Members) their place in the new order is already decided. For the six teams at Windhoek – Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Namibia, Canada, Oman and the United States – five games each over the next ten days will decide which four join Scotland, the UAE and Nepal in CWC League 2 (effectively the replacement for the old WCL Championship), with the bottom two teams dropping down to the CWC Challenge Leagues for the coming cycle.

The Format: The tournament will follow the standard template for most World Cricket League events – a round robin followed by a final and placement playoffs. The main business of the tournament will be settled through a simple six-team group stage, with all the teams playing each other once.

After the group stage, the top two teams on points (with net run rate as the first tie-breaker) progress to the final, whilst the third and fourth-ranked teams contest the third-place play-off and the bottom two teams face off for the wooden spoon. The cut-off for promotion to CWC League 2 is at fourth, however, so the final games will essentially be played for pride.

With three matches played simultaneously on every game-day and only two rest/reserve days on the 22nd and 25th, the 18-match tournament lasts just eight days in total. Though the six teams, all having a long pedigree in WCL events, will be well used to the intense schedule of the format, the breakneck pace leaves little room for recovery either physically or psychologically from early setbacks, and any early upsets could wreck even the fortunes of the favourites.

What’s at Stake: Context and consequences have long been the hallmark of Associates cricket in general and the World Cricket League especially, but baring perhaps the final WCL Championship there has never been a WCL tournament with higher stakes than this, the league’s last hurrah. The top four finishers will win promotion to the new CWC League 2, where together with Scotland, the UAE and Nepal they can look forward to a total of 36 fixtures over the next cycle. Not only will the games at League 2 be full ODIs, but the 7 participating teams will also be accorded ODI status until at least the next World Cup Qualifier, bringing the number of ODI nations to 20. League 2 also affords the chance at placing directly for the next WC Qualifier through a top 3 finish, whilst the League 2 champion has a shot at qualifying for the 13-team Super League the following cycle, by outperforming the 13th team at the WC Qualifier. For the bottom two teams, the CWC Challenge League will look rather more familiar. The two six-team groups will run in parallel, with the fifth-placed team from Division 2 pencilled in to join Singapore, Denmark, Malaysia, Vanuatu and Qatar in Group A, whilst the bottom-placed team meeting Kenya, Uganda, Jersey, Bermuda and Italy in Group B. The draw is understood to remain subject to tinkering, however, in part due to the format. Each competition will comprise three single-venue six-team round-robin tournaments reminiscent of WCL Divisional events and at least three suitable hosts will presumably have to be found in each group.

Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/460913-odi-status-on-the-line-at-world-cricket-league