Ten teams, including Windies and Sri Lanka, gear up for World Cup Lite

The 2023 edition of the ICC ODI World Cup (WC) is almost here. Eight teams enter the global event via direct qualification, including the host, India. South Africa were the last team to sneak in with two wins against the Netherlands. In the process, they pushed out West Indies, Ireland, and Sri Lanka.

Ten teams will fight for the remaining two spots in the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup Qualifiers starting June 18th. 

Before the 2019 WC, the main stage were classified by groups. Full-member nations (10) would acquire a direct qualification, and two other teams would be added after qualifiers. However, the format changed for the 2019 and the 2023 WC in both the league stage and the qualifiers. 

The road to qualifiers in the 2019 and 2023 WC are similar, especially for associate nations. For the 2019 WC, the top eight-ranked teams and hosts acquired a direct qualification. 

But for the 2023 edition, the direct qualification was different. A new tournament was introduced. The ICC World Cup Super League would select the top eight teams by points rather than their rankings. For example, Bangladesh are the seventh-ranked team, but they ended up as the third-best team in the CWC Super League with 155 points. 

How did the ten teams reach the Qualifiers?

The bottom five teams of the CWC Super League will be accompanied by the top three teams from the ICC Cricket World Cup League Two and the top two from the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge Play-off. 

The seven teams that obtained ODI status in the 2015-17 ICC World Cricket League Championship would compete with each other for points, just like the CWC Super League. The top three teams secured a direct spot in the Qualifiers. 

The bottom four teams, alongside the top two teams from the Challenge League (teams without ODI status), entered the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge Play-off. The top two teams from this tournament joined the other eight teams in the WC Qualifiers. 

Teams that are participating in the Qualifiers

The bottom five teams from CWC Super League are West Indies (ninth), Sri Lanka (10th), Ireland (11th), Zimbabwe (hosts) & the Netherlands (13th). 

From League Two, Scotland (top), Oman (second) & Nepal (third) secured a direct qualification to the Qualifiers. Namibia (fourth), USA (fifth), UAE (sixth), and PNG (seventh) went into the Play-offs. 

From the Challenge League, Jersey, and Canada joined the four in the Qualifier Play-off. Among the six, USA and UAE have reached the WC Qualifiers. 

Now, the ten teams are classified into two groups: 

Nepal, Netherlands, USA, West Indies, and Zimbabwe are in Group A.

Group B comprises Ireland, Oman, Scotland, UAE, and Sri Lanka. 

Pic Credits: ICC

The top three teams from each group will advance to the Super Six. The top two teams from the Super Six will qualify for the Finals and the league stage of the WC that will be held in October-November.

Venues

The Qualifiers will be played across four venues. Harare Sports Club and Takashinga Sports Club in Harare, and Queens Sports Club and Bulawayo Athletic Club in Bulawayo. 

Since 2019, all ODIs in Zimbabwe have been held at the Harare Sports Club. None of the other three venues has witnessed a game. Takshinga Sports Club will be hosting its first International match. 

Hence, we will be looking at venue characteristics from 2018, as all the other three venues have seen at least three matches. 

Since 2018, runs in ODIs have been a bit hard to come by in all three venues. Batting teams average 29.4 at a run rate of 5.0 at Queens SC (9 matches), 29.2 at 5.0 Harare SC (33), and 24.6 at 4.4 in Bulawayo AC (3).

All three venues have different features for pacers and spinners. Queens SC has been equal to both. Pacers have bagged 57.4% of wickets at a bowling strike rate of 32.7 and economy of 5.1 compared to 42.6% by spinners at 42.0 and 4.7. 

However, at Harare SC, pacers have dominated the wicket section. They have picked up 62.2% of the wickets compared to 37.8% by spinners. On the other hand, Bulawayo AC has seen spinners dominating with 60.5% of the wickets compared to 39.5%. 

With all teams set, the battle begins in Zimbabwe for the two spots.