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World Cricket League

World Cricket League
Image-WCLeague.jpg
Official logo
Administrator International Cricket Council
Format One Day International
List A
First tournament 2007–09
Tournament format League system
Number of teams 95 nations
Current champion Ireland
Most successful Ireland (2 victories)
Most runs Paras Khadka (1505) (Nepal)
Most wickets Basanta Regmi (103) (Nepal)
Website ICC World Cricket League
2012–18 ICC World Cricket League

The ICC World Cricket League is a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (of Associate or Affiliate status), administered by the International Cricket Council. All associate and affiliate members of the ICC are eligible to compete in the league system, which features a promotion and relegation structure between divisions. The league system has two main aims: to provide a qualification system for the World Cup that can be accessed by all associate and affiliate members, and as an opportunity for these sides to play international one-day matches against teams of similar standards.

In the inaugural ICC World Cricket League 2007–09, teams were allocated into divisions based on their performance in the qualification tournaments for the 2007 World Cup; the six initial teams in Division One were the teams that qualified for the 2007 World Cup. The initial series began with regional qualifiers and a First Division in 2007, and ended with the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier. At this stage, there were only five divisions.

The second cycle began in 2009 with three additional divisions.

The initial league began in 2007 with seven tournaments over five global divisions, based upon previous world rankings. This was expanded into eight separate divisions for the 2009–13 edition. In the first cycle, the number of teams in each tournament varied from six to twelve. With the advent of the second cycle, the number of teams has regularised to six for each tournament, with the exception of the lowest division, Division 8, in which eight teams play. The final of each cycle, the World Cup Qualifier, contains twelve teams as it is a combination of Divisions 1 (all 6 teams), 2 (top 4 teams) and 3 (top 2 teams).

When most of the divisions are played, two teams will be promoted, two relegated and two remain for the next instalment, two years later. There are some occasions when this is not the case. When Division 8 is played, though two teams are promoted, only one remains and the bottom five drop out of the system. They are replaced by the top five teams from recent regional events for the next instalment. At the end of each cycle, the World Cup Qualifier is played featuring the top twelve teams. According to the results, the top six qualify for Division 1 of the next cycle. The teams that finish seventh to tenth in this tournament proceed to Division 2 and the bottom two are relegated to Division 3. Teams in Division 1 gain ODI status and the top four qualify for the Cricket World Cup. In addition, there is no promotion or relegation so the teams remain until the next World Cup Qualifier is played.


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