Cricket World Cup Qualification

[Etienne]

Thread for qualification for the Women's 2025 and Men's 2027 World Cups.

The men's qualification process is byzantine, so I will need some time to set it all down

But all of OTF can be confident this thread will be full of updates from crucial matches like today's Italy vs Bermuda game that garnered such engagement in the T20 World Cup qualifcation threads.

The Women's World Cup is much simpler. 8 teams qualify (it will be expanding after this edition), India qualify as hosts. Next 5 teams qualify from the 2022–2025 ICC Women's Championship which you will all doubtless be familiar with. Currently the table is as below, with England only scraping in as the lowest of the 5 non-Indian qualifying teams.

Everyone will play 24 games, England's remaining series are at home to Pakistan, and away in Ireland, NZ and South Africa.

		P	W	L	T	NR
1	Australia	15	10	3	0	2	22
2	South Africa	15	10	5	0	0	20
3	Pakistan	18	8	10	0	0	16
4	New Zealand	15	7	6	0	2	16
5	England	12	7	4	0	1	15
6	India	9	7	1	1	0	15
7	Bangladesh	15	4	6	1	4	13
8	Sri Lanka	15	4	8	0	3	11
9	West Indies	12	3	7	0	2	8
10	Ireland	12	0	10	0	2	2

The four teams that fail to make it will go into the Global Qualifer. Who else will join have the opportunity to join them in this prestigious tournament with 2 World Cup final places at stake. God only knows. The internet doesn't seem to.

[Greenlander]

Bermuda got a proper roasting from Italy today. For a team that actually made the World Cup in 2007 and were always one of the top associates for the twenty or so years before that, Bermuda's fall has been quite something.

[Etienne]

I think it is more that Italy are stronger - Wayne Madsen, Grant Stewart and Gareth Berg have all stuck on for one more try at reaching a World Cup after failing to make the T20 one, and they have other diaspora players too.

At least Bermuda are maintaining their Leverock tradition with Dwayne's nephew Kamau taking 5 wickets.

[Etienne]

The four teams that fail to make it will go into the Global Qualifer. Who else will join have the opportunity to join them in this prestigious tournament with 2 World Cup final places at stake. God only knows. The internet doesn't seem to.

OK, further digging suggests that the 2 highest ranked ODI teams will join the 4 bottom teams from the Women's Championship. Currently that would seem to be Thailand in 9th place (ahead of Pakistan and Ireland) and Netherlands in 12th place. Zimbabwe are in 13th place, and no other teams have a ranking, which will make qualification challenging for the likes of Scotland, USA and PNG though the latter 3 have been granted ODI status to allow them to attempt to qualify.

[Etienne]

OK. Here goes with the men's tournament. 36 teams have the opportunity to qualify.

South Africa and Zimbabwe qualify as hosts.

The 8 best ODI teams by world ranking also qualify (currently, India, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan).

Wikipedia says that the next 2 teams (currently West Indies and Scotland) go into the Global Qualifier. However, I think this may be wrong, as otherwise any full member not in the top 12 by world ranking (currently Ireland) has no alternative path to qualification. So, I think that West Indies and Ireland will go into the Global Qualifier (unless they improve their results enough to get in by ranking).

Also part of the qualification process are eight teams in League 2 (which appears to have higher status in international cricket than domestic football)
This is Netherlands, Nepal, Namibia, Scotland, USA, Canada, Oman and UAE. Each nation hosts 3 tri-series plus go on 6 bilateral tours so these teams will see plenty of each other.
The top 4 teams will make it into the global qualifier. The bottom 4 teams still have a chance to make it though as they will go into the Qualifier Playoff. Namibia currently lead the embryonic table, but only they, Nepal and Netherlands have played any matches.

The next stage down is the Challenge League
Jersey, Papua New Guinea, Denmark, Qatar, Kenya, Hong Kong, Singapore and Uganda are all there already, and the world is currently transfixed by the battle to join them in the Challenge League Play Off featuring the aforementioned Italy, Bermuda, plus Vanuatu, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and hosts Malaysia (typing this has made me realise Greenlander is entirely correct to highlight how far they have fallen from their World Cup participation in 2007. The top 4 teams from the Challenge League Playoff will join the Challenger League.

The top 2 of the Challenge League will join the bottom 4 from League 2 in the Qualifier Playoff and the top 4 of that will go into the Global Qualifier. So, it's quite possible that after 36 matches being played to separate the top 4 teams in League 2 from the bottom 4 that they could all reunite in the Global Qualifier.

Then, finally, the top 4 of the Global Qualifier qualify for the 2027 World Cup

All clear?

[George C.]

[Etienne]

Italy, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from Group A and Bahrain, Tanzania and Malaysia qualify for the Super Sixes, so Bermuda and Vanuatu become the first teams eliminated. Vanuatu beat Malaysia with 126 balls to spare, and still lost out to them on NRR. The top 4 teams after the Super Sixes will go into the Challenge League

[Etienne]

Firdoose Moonda does an explainer of the qualifying process for cricinfo here which may be more comprehensible than mine.

[Greenlander]

How can a country that has a two day holiday for a cricket match fall so far.

If I'd taken citizenship when I was given the chance I might be able to get a game.

[Etienne]

It looks like I have written Bermuda and Vanuatu off to soon, as they are appearing in the Super Sixes. I guess it must be head to head results as a tie breaker rather than NRR, so Malaysia and Saudi Arabia are the eliminated sides.

However, as Vanuatu lost to Kuwait by over 200 runs, and Bermuda lost to Tanzania by 127 runs, I'm confident that they are going to be eliminated pretty soon.

[Etienne]

I'm not going to be posting updates on League 2 as a) it is inordinately long for a qualifying tournament (it's clearly primarily there to give the teams just short of full membership lots of games against teams at a similar level rather than as a qualifying event) and b) the same teams are likely to be playing with rather more stake in the Global Qualifier. But I do want to note that Scotland (who very nearly qualified for the last WC have just got absolutely gubbed by Canada, which shows either how fine the margins are, or possibly that assembling a team of subcontinental immigrants is going to be more effective than players on the fringe of English counties when you have as pool as large as Canada has.

[ursus arctos]

I was going to mention that as well.

Canada could do some damage if they avoid the kind of administrative nonsense that the US suffers from (and Canada is not unfamiliar with).

[Etienne]

Italy, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from Group A and Bahrain, Tanzania and Malaysia qualify for the Super Sixes, so Bermuda and Vanuatu become the first teams eliminated. Vanuatu beat Malaysia with 126 balls to spare, and still lost out to them on NRR. The top 4 teams after the Super Sixes will go into the Challenge League

And lo, so it happened. Bermuda were thrashed by everyone, even Vanuatu who lost to everyone else, though they did push Italy very close.

Kuwait (as tournament winners) Italy, Bahrain and Tanzania progress.

[Etienne]

OK, further digging suggests that the 2 highest ranked ODI teams will join the 4 bottom teams from the Women's Championship. Currently that would seem to be Thailand in 9th place (ahead of Pakistan and Ireland) and Netherlands in 12th place. Zimbabwe are in 13th place, and no other teams have a ranking, which will make qualification challenging for the likes of Scotland, USA and PNG though the latter 3 have been granted ODI status to allow them to attempt to qualify.

Not official qualifiers, but Scotland, USA and PNG are currently playing an ODI tri-series in Dubai trying to get above Thailand and Zimbabwe in the ODI rankings (though PNG were just swept 3-0 by Zim in Harare in their first ever ODIs). PNG won their first match, against USA, but their hero of that game Tanya Ruma has just gone against Scotland. They are 43/2 after 13 overs chasing 218.