How do Teams Qualify for Cricket World Cup?

The Cricket World Cup is the mother of all Cricket tournaments. One of the world’s most televised events, it is touted as the biggest cricketing spectacle. It is held every four years. More than a dozen teams from across the globe compete against each other, with the best team, the one that wins the final of the tournament, walks away with the trophy.

The origin of the World Cup dates back to 1975 when the first tournament was held. It was won by the mighty West Indies. Since then, more countries have been added to the list of participating members and the format of the tournament has undergone many changes making it more exciting and entertaining. Qualifying for the World Cup is no child’s play and only the best teams make it through.

Currently, there are more than 100 nations where cricket is played. In a few, cricket is a major sport while in many it is still in the nascent stage. Of these nations, barely 20 make it to the World Cup. It is a long drawn out process and can typically start a few years before the actual event takes place. There are five ICC regional bodies and these include Asia, East-Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The respective councils of these five bodies organize the qualifying tournaments for the World Cup Qualifier. Barring the 1975 World Cup, the qualifying events have been held for all the following World Cups.

The cricket world is divided into two groups – the test playing nations and the non-test playing nations. The former automatically qualify for the World Cup while the latter nations have to take part in a series of preliminary qualifying tournaments to make it through. The 1979 World Cup, which was the second edition of the tournament, witnessed the introduction of the qualifying tournaments. Two places out of a total eight in the finals were given to the ICC Trophy’s leading teams. However, the following years witnessed changes in the number of teams that were selected through the ICC Trophy. The International Cricket Council administers the World Cricket League. This qualification system gives more opportunities to the Associate as well as the Affiliate members to qualify in the tournament.

The 2019 World Cup

The 2019 Cricket World Cup, the 12th edition of the tournament, will kick start on May 30th. The event will be held in England and Wales. The tournament and the qualification process have undergone a complete overhaul. The earlier tournaments saw up to 15 or 16 members competing with each other. But, the 2019 spectacle has been drastically cut to 10 teams. It is the first time in the history of the World Cup that not all the test playing nations will be present. Also, no associate members will be there in the 2019 tournament.

The format will be different compared to the previous World Cups which saw multiple groups. The 2019 tournament will be a single group of 10 teams. Every team will get a chance to play against the other nine teams. The four teams that make it to the top of the standings will play the semi-finals and ultimately the final. The eight top teams on the top of the ICC ODI Championship list automatically made it to the World Cup. Two teams were selected after qualifying in the 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier. The teams that took part in the qualifier were Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, United Arab Emirates, West Indies, and Zimbabwe. Of these, Afghanistan and West Indies qualified for the 2019 World Cup tournament. The other eight teams that automatically qualified are England, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Incidentally, this would be the first time when Afghanistan would be playing in the tournament.

ICC World Cup 2019: Full Schedule, Date and Venue

Information on Other Sports:

• Where is World Cup Rugby 2019?
• 10 Rugby Playing Nations in The World

• Where is FIFA World Cup 2022?
• When are The Olympics Held?

Related Maps: