2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier
| Dates | July – August 2018 |
|---|---|
| Administrator(s) | International Cricket Council |
| Cricket format |
One Day International List A cricket |
| Tournament format(s) | Round-robin and Knockout |
| Host(s) | TBD |
| Participants | 10 |
| Official website | www.icc-cricket.com |
The 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifier will be a cricket tournament to decide the final qualification for the 2019 World Cup. The top two teams will qualify for the World Cup, joining the 8 teams who will have already qualified through their ranking in the ICC ODI Championship.
The tournament was initially scheduled to take place in Bangladesh. However, in May 2017 it was reported that the event would instead be hosted jointly by Ireland and Scotland. This is because Bangladesh are almost certain to qualify automatically for the World Cup, and thus would not be participating in the qualifier.
As it was decided to reduce teams in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, a new world cup qualification structure was introduced where at least two Test playing nations will need to play in the qualifying tournament and therefor a Test-playing nation could miss the World Cup for the first time. Ireland and Afghanistan are included in the ICC ODI Championship from which the top eight teams on 30 September 2017 will automatically qualify for the World Cup. The bottom four teams in the ICC ODI Championship ranking will be joined by the top four teams from the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship and the two finalists of the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two for the qualifying tournament. This means that at most two associate teams can qualify for the World Cup or none if beaten by the Test playing nations.
Bottom 4 based on current rankings:
Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and Ireland cannot increase their ratings enough between now and 30 September to qualify automatically.
Top 4 based on current rankings:
Advanced to 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh
Relegated to Division Two
Source: ESPNcricinfo
...
Wikipedia