2023 ICC Cricket World Cup - Qualification Process

Today, it was announced by ICC that the 3 match One Day Series between England and Ireland, which was scheduled to be played during late July and early August, will mark the first series of 2020-22 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League. Many weren't aware of the new qualification process, imposed for 2023 Cricket World Cup. This progress is the new way of qualification, which weren't attained during the previous World Cup Tournaments.

A brief explanation of this qualification progress comes right now. The qualification for 2023 Cricket World Cup consists of Super League, League Two Stage, Challenge League Stage, along with Play Off Stage and World Cup Qualifier Stage.

Super League 

It consists of ICC's 12 Full Member Teams along with Netherlands, who had previously won 2015-17 World Cricket League Championship. In this league, each and every tea would be playing 8 series against 8 different nations out of the twelve nations. In those 8 series, four of them will be played at home, while the remaining four will be played at away. Those teams are: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, India, Ireland, Pakistan, West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Netherlands. In this 13 teams, Top 7 teams of the Super League, along with India ( as being the hosts ) will directly qualify for 2023 Cricket World Cup. The remaining 5 teams, will be qualifying for World Cup Qualifier Stage. Also, the top 12 teams will automatically qualify to the next Super League Stage, whereas the thirteenth team would be qualifying for the next Super League 2 Stage. This will be played between 2020-22, but due to COVID-19 Pandemic, it might get extended. 

League 2 Stage

It consists of teams like Nepal, Scotland, UAE along with Namibia, Oman, Papua New Guinea and United States ( who were been the top 4 finishers of World Cricket League, Division Two). So, this consists of seven teams, and each series will be played as tri series, unlike Super League stage. This will be played during the period between 2019-22. Top three teams will be qualifying for the World Cup Qualifier Stage, while the bottom four teams will be qualifying for the Play off Stage.

Challenge League

In this phase, it consists of teams ranked from 21st position to 32nd position in the World Cricket League. From these teams, only top two teams will be qualifying for the Play Off Stage. 

Play Off Stage

This stage is played after the end of 2020-22 ICC ODI Super League, 2019-22 ICC League 2 Stage, and 2019-22 ICC Challenge League. This consists of teams placed at bottom four position at League Two Stage and Top Two Teams from Challenge League Stage. So ultimately, it consists of 6 teams. From these six teams, only top two teams will be qualifying for the World Cup Qualifier Stage. So, it marks a chance for the associate nations, to become a part of 2023 Cricket World Cup.

World Cup Qualifier Stage

This stage consists of Bottom 5 teams from the ICC ODI Super League Stage, along with Top 3 teams from the League Two Stage and Top 2 teams from the Play Off Stage. So, it consists of 10 teams. From these ten, only the top 2 teams will be qualifying for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.

2023 Cricket World Cup

So, finally this consists of top 8 teams, including India (hosts) from the ICC ODI Super League Stage along with the Top 2 teams from the World Cup Qualifier Stage. Ultimately, it consists of ten teams just like the previous season. But, this tournament is further pushed from February - March of 2023 to October - November of 2023, without changing the Hosts, due to the effect of Corona Virus Pandemic, all across the world.