Administrator | International Cricket Council |
---|---|
Format | One-Day International List A |
First edition | 2007 |
Latest edition | 2019 |
Tournament format | League system |
Number of teams | 93 nations |
Most runs | Peter Gough (2006) |
Most wickets | Basanta Regmi (118) |
Website | ICC World Cricket League |
The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of the ICC were eligible to compete in the league system, which featured a promotion and relegation structure between divisions. The league system had two main aims: to provide a qualification system for the Cricket World Cup that could be accessed by all Associate Members and as an opportunity for these sides to play international one-day matches against teams of similar standards.
The league began in 2007, where 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 had qualified for the 2007 World Cup. At this stage, there were only five divisions. The WCL expanded to eight divisions at one point.
The WCL was a pathway to the Cricket World Cup until 2019. Following the conclusion of the 2019 Division Two tournament, the WCL was replaced by the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 and the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League. The final rankings from the WCL were used to place teams into the two new leagues. [1] [2]
The initial league began in 2007 with seven tournaments over five global divisions, based upon previous world rankings. [3] [4] This was expanded into eight separate divisions by 2010. 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 was regularised to six for each tournament, with the exception of the lowest division, Division 8, in which eight teams played. As from 2015, the number of divisions was again reduced to just five.
When most of the divisions are played, two teams will be promoted, two relegated and two remain for the next instalment (normally two years later). At the end of each cycle, a World Cup Qualifier is played. In 2018, this featured the four lowest teams of those holding 'Full' (senior) status, together with six 'Associate' nations – namely the four who were still in Division One, plus the top two from Division Two. The two last-placed teams in that World Cup Qualifier lost their ODI status and were relegated into Division Two.
Regional tournaments, which act as qualifiers for the lowest division of the World League, are administered by the five development regions of the International Cricket Council: Africa, Americas, Asia, East Asia-Pacific, and Europe. [5] [3]
Cycle | Pre-qualification for | Divisions | World Cup qualification tournament(s) |
---|---|---|---|
2007–09 [6] | 2011 Cricket World Cup | 5 | 2009 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
2009–14 [7] | 2015 Cricket World Cup | 8 | 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship, 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
2012–18 [ citation needed ] | 2019 Cricket World Cup | 8 | 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
2017–19 [ citation needed ] | League 2, Challenge League → 2023 Cricket World Cup | 5 | 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
In late 2005, the International Cricket Council ranked the top non-Test nations from 11–30 to complement the Test nations' rankings in the ICC ODI Championship. The ICC used the results from the 2005 ICC Trophy and WCQS Division 2 competition (i.e. the primary qualification mechanisms for the 2007 Cricket World Cup) to rank the nations.
These rankings were used to seed the initial stage of the global World Cricket League. Teams ranked 11–16 were placed into Division 1; teams 17–20 were placed into Division 2; teams 21–24 were placed into Division 3; the remaining teams were placed into the upper divisions of their respective regional qualifiers.
In 2005, six associates were assigned One Day International status, based on their performance at the preceding World Cup Qualifier. In 2017, Afghanistan and Ireland were both promoted to "Full" (test-match) status, leaving only four associate nations with ODI-status: after mid-March 2018 these were Scotland, Netherlands, UAE, and Nepal. Netherlands, as winners of the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship, have qualified for a place in the 2020–22 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League. In May 2009, the ICC added a rankings table for the associate and affiliate members containing both global and regional placings. In 2016 this changed to maintain a global list only for the top teams and a set of regional lists for the remaining teams.
The global rankings of associate teams according to ICC are published in the table below. [8] [9] Teams that have One Day International status are now included on the main ICC ODI Championship and are listed in the order they appear on that table. The other teams are ranked by their finishing position in the most recent qualifying tournament.
The rankings at the end of the WCL (27 April 2019): [8]
Division [lower-alpha 1] | Rank | Nation | Region | Regional rank |
---|---|---|---|---|
ODI Status | 13 | Scotland | Europe | 1 |
14 | Nepal | Asia | 1 | |
15 | United Arab Emirates | Asia | 2 | |
16 | Netherlands | Europe | 2 | |
17 | Namibia | Africa | 1 | |
18 | Oman | Asia | 3 | |
19 | Papua New Guinea | EAP | 1 | |
20 | United States | Americas | 1 | |
Division 2 | 21 | Canada | Americas | 2 |
22 | Hong Kong | Asia | 4 | |
Division 3 | 23 | Singapore | Asia | 5 |
24 | Kenya | Africa | 2 | |
25 | Denmark | Europe | 3 | |
26 | Uganda | Africa | 3 | |
Division 4 | 27 | Malaysia | Asia | 6 |
28 | Jersey | Europe | 4 | |
29 | Vanuatu | EAP | 2 | |
30 | Bermuda | Americas | 3 | |
Division 5 | 31 | Qatar | Asia | 7 |
32 | Italy | Europe | 5 | |
33 | Germany | Europe | 6 | |
34 | Guernsey | Europe | 7 | |
35 | Ghana | Africa | 4 | |
36 | Cayman Islands | Americas | 4 |
Teams that do not participate in (or have been relegated from) the World Cricket League are ranked by their finishing positions in their respective regional leagues:
|
|
|
|
|
** Not member of ICC, but member of Asian Cricket Council.
International cricket matches are played between the teams representing their nations, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The main forms are Test matches, One-Day matches and Twenty20 matches.
The ICC Men's ODI Team Rankings is an international One Day International (ODI) cricket rankings system of the International Cricket Council (ICC). After every ODI match, the two teams involved receive points based on a mathematical formula. Each team's points total is divided by their total number of matches played to give a rating, and all the teams are ranked in a table in order of rating.
The ICC Intercontinental Cup was a first-class cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as part of its cricket development programme. It was designed to allow Associate Members of the ICC the chance to play first-class cricket matches over four days against teams of similar skill in a competition environment and prepare them for eventual promotion to Test cricket status. First run in 2004, two of the most successful teams in the history of the tournament, Ireland and Afghanistan were promoted to Full Member and Test status, in 2017.
The Canada national cricket team represents Canada in international cricket. The team is administered by Cricket Canada, which became an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1968.
The Cricket World Cup Qualifier is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that serves as the culmination of the qualification process for the Cricket World Cup. It is usually played in the year before the World Cup. Although the tournament has used a variety of different formats, a final qualification event has been a feature of every World Cup since 1979.
The Oman men's national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Oman in international matches and is governed by Oman Cricket, which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2000, and gained associate status in 2014. The national side has played matches at the Twenty20 International level. On 24 April 2019, Oman achieved One-Day International status for the first time until 2023, after they beat tournament hosts Namibia by four wickets in 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two.
The Botswana national cricket team is the men's team that represents Botswana in international cricket. They have been an associate member of the International Cricket Council since 2005, after previously being an affiliate member since 2001 and an associate member in 2017. They are in Division Five of the World Cricket League and are ranked at joint 29th in the world by the International Cricket Council (ICC). They are the 5th-highest ranked non-Test team in the African region. The team's coach is former Kenyan ODI player Joseph Angara, who was appointed in July 2015.
The European Cricket Championship was a national team cricket tournament for the European countries associated with the International Cricket Council. In the past, the tournament was played as a league system, where the teams were split into divisions. The competition was designed to encourage and develop the best players in countries where cricket was not a major sport and Europe's only Test cricket playing country at the time, England, did not enter a full-strength side. The games were often played as 50-over one-day cricket matches.
The Vanuatu national cricket team is the men's team that represents Vanuatu in international cricket. The team is organised by the Vanuatu Cricket Association, which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1995 and an associate member in 2009. Vanuatu made its international debut at the 1979 Pacific Games, at which time the country was still known as the New Hebrides. The majority of the team's matches have come against other members of the ICC East Asia-Pacific region, including both at ICC regional tournaments and at the cricket events at the Pacific Games.
The 2009 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place in April 2009 in South Africa. It was the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
Cricket World Cup qualification is the process national cricket teams go through to qualify for the Cricket World Cup. The Cricket World Cup is a global event, and qualification is used to reduce the large field of participants from about 100 to 10–14. The qualification process has started as early as almost 7 years before the World Cup.
A series of six ICC World Cricket League (WCL) tournaments, as well as a series of pre-qualifying regional tournaments, and the 2009 Cricket World Cup Qualifier were played between January 2007 and April 2009. It was the first use of the World Cricket League structure. Through the WCL tournaments, teams could advance to the World Cup Qualifier, which could lead to qualification for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. 30 Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC participated in the events.
The Namibia men's national cricket team, nicknamed the Eagles, is the men's team that represents the Republic of Namibia in international cricket. It is organised by Cricket Namibia, which became an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1992.
The ICC World Cricket League Championship was the top division of the World Cricket League (WCL). It formed the qualification process for the Cricket World Cup.
The 2017–18 international cricket season was from September 2017 to April 2018. 28 Test matches, 93 One Day Internationals (ODIs), and 44 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) were played during this period. Out of the 30 Test matches that were played four were day/night matches. The day/night Test match between South Africa and Zimbabwe was scheduled to last for only four days in duration, with the last such four-day Test match being played in 1973. The season started with India leading the Test cricket rankings, South Africa leading the ODI rankings, New Zealand leading the Twenty20 rankings, and England women leading the women's rankings. Additionally, the Laws of Cricket 2017 Code came into effect on 1 October 2017, superseding the 6th Edition of the 2000 Code of Laws, with many of the changes in the laws being incorporated into the ICC Standard Playing Conditions.
The 2018 international cricket season was from May 2018 to September 2018. 16 Test matches, 27 One-day Internationals (ODIs) and 33 Twenty20 International (T20Is), as well as 14 Women's One Day Internationals (WODIs) and 81 Women's Twenty20 Internationals (WT20Is), were played during this period.
The 2018–19 international cricket season was from September 2018 to April 2019. 34 Test matches, 92 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and 74 Twenty20 International (T20Is), as well as 28 Women's One Day Internationals (WODIs) and 130 Women's Twenty20 Internationals (WT20Is), were played during this period. The season started with India leading the Test cricket rankings, England leading the ODI rankings and Pakistan leading the Twenty20 rankings. In October 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced separate rankings for women's ODIs and T20Is for the first time, with Australia women leading both tables.
The 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two was an international cricket tournament that took place in April 2019 in Namibia. It was contested by six teams; Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Papua New Guinea, the United States and tournament hosts Namibia. It formed part of the 2017–19 cycle of the World Cricket League (WCL) which determined the qualification for the 2023 Cricket World Cup. The final and third-place playoff match were granted One Day International (ODI) status by the International Cricket Council. Namibia won the tournament, after they beat Oman by 145 runs in the final. It was Namibia's first win in an ODI match, and it was the first ever ODI match played by Oman.
The 2019–2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League was the inaugural edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League and a cricket tournament which formed part of the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualification process. The Challenge League replaced the World Cricket League (WCL) which was previously used as the pathway to the Cricket World Cup. The first fixtures took place in September 2019, with all matches having List A status.
The Associate Team Rankings is an international ODI and T20I rankings system of the International Cricket Council (ICC) for its associate nations. Currently, the top 8 associate teams, out of total 96, have temporary ODI status, which means matches played against fellow associates with same status and full-members will be recognized as an official ODI game, and also allows them to feature in the main rankings table. The rest of the associate teams will have no official ODI rankings but will be ranked according to their performances in the leagues they're competing in, which are part of Cricket World Cup qualification. Meanwhile, all associate members of ICC are granted T20I status and thus feature in the main rankings table.