There will be 14 teams in the tournament, but it will be a long and winding road for all but the top teams.
firdose moonda
The road to the next 50-over World Cup began last week in Kirtipur with the first match of the Cricket World Cup League 2 24-triangular series. The 2027 tournament, scheduled for October-November, will be an expanded event with 14 teams participating. More than 54 matches were played in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, with some taking scenic routes to the main event. It’s a long road, but here we’ll take you.
Who will automatically qualify for the 2027 tournament?
Two of the three co-hosts, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and eight of the top 10 teams in the ICC’s ODI rankings will take part. At the moment, the names are India, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, but this may change as the event approaches.
What about the third co-host?
That is Namibia, who are ranked 16th in ODIs and have to go through the qualification pathway. If they fail to take part in the tournament, a scenario is also conceivable where the match will be played in Namibia, but Namibia will not take part in the tournament. It will also be the first World Cup without a representative from one of the host countries.
So, what must Namibia do to qualify for the World Cup?
This is the difficult part. Namibia is participating in World Cup Cricket League 2, an eight-team competition that will be held over the next three years. The top four teams in this tournament will advance to the World Cup qualifiers.
The remaining four teams will participate in a playoff tournament against the top two teams from the Challenge League (actually the third division). These teams will then play a mini-tournament called the World Cup Qualifying Playoffs (format to be determined), with the top four teams advancing to the World Cup Qualifiers, and from there four teams will advance to the World Cup in order. This means teams in Ligue 2 have two chances to qualify, while also opening up the possibility for lower-ranked teams to qualify for the main competition.
So who plays in League 2 and how does it work?
We already know that Namibia are in League Two. Namibia also has the Netherlands, the only team in the now-defunct World Cup Super League (and was also the league’s only associate member), Scotland, UAE, USA, Nepal, and last year’s World Cup qualifiers Oman, who was in the league, and Canada, who were promoted from the Challenge League.
In total, these eight teams will play nine triangular series, with each team playing four matches, between now and December 2026 (36 games total for each team, 144 ODIs total).
Who are the players to watch in League 2?
The Dutch have attracted attention with the likes of Bas de Leede (ESPNcricinfo’s Batter of the Year), Logan van Beek and Max O’Dowd, but there are plenty of other players to keep an eye on as well.
Scottish all-rounder Brandon McMullen was the top scorer in last year’s World Cup qualifiers and was also the top wicket-taker, making him a promising player for the future. Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus, who led his team impressively to the Super 12 of the 2021 T20 World Cup, will take charge in this year’s tournament, with opening batsman Kushal Bultel exuding class in Nepali We will also be competing against each other.
Omani left-arm seamer Bilal Khan made headlines when he took 14 wickets in last year’s World Cup qualifiers. UAE all-rounder Ayan Afzal Khan, 18 years old from the UAE, has shown talent with his left-arm spin and decent strike rate, and the United States has a line of fiercely quick players led by Saurabh Netravalkar, so keep an eye out. are collecting. Newly promoted Canada regained ODI status last year and will be showcasing a host of new talent.
And who plays in the Challenge League and how does it work?
The league has 12 teams, with tournaments currently being held in Malaysia and Vanuatu and scheduled to end on March 3, some of which are currently being finalized.
So far, Papua New Guinea, Jersey, Denmark, Hong Kong, Kenya, Qatar, Singapore and Uganda have been confirmed to participate in the Challenge League. Four countries complete the lineup: Bermuda, Italy, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Malaysia, Tanzania and Vanuatu.
Once that is determined, Challenge League teams will be divided into two pools of six teams each, each of which will play three round-robin tournaments during the cycle, for a total of 90 games. The top two teams from each pool advance to the World Cup Qualifiers.
And what will it be like once we finally reach World Cup qualifying?
Ten teams will compete: the teams ranked 11th and 12th (in other words, the full members who missed out on automatic qualification), four teams from League 2, and four teams from Challenge League. Four of these teams will advance to the 2027 World Cup.
So how many teams are running towards 2027?
The total is 36. The number will be reduced to 32 once the Challenge League participants are confirmed. Given that there are 10 teams that automatically qualify based on the rankings, realistically there will be 22 other teams (including two full-member teams) competing for the four World Cup spots.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa and women’s cricket correspondent