ICC release new qualification scenario for 2023 Cricket World Cup in India

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has released a new qualification pathway for the 13th edition of the Cricket World Cup, which is scheduled to be hosted by India, from 9th February to 26th March 2023. ICC already faced severe backlash for reducing the 2019 Cricket World Cup in England to just 10 teams. But again they have decided to stick to a 10-team format for the mega event.

Totally, 32 teams will be competing across six different ICC qualification tournaments. Out of those 32 teams, 13 will participate in miscellaneous bilateral ODI series namely 'ICC Cricket World Cup Super League'. It is scheduled to take place from July 2020-2022. In total, 156 matches will be played during this period and each team will play 24 matches. The top 8 teams will qualify for the 2023 World Cup and the bottom 5 teams will go to the Cricket World Cup Qualifier (2022). The remaining two teams will be finalised after various ICC events.

Below are the 13 teams in ICC World Super League:

India 🇮🇳, Australia 🇦🇺, England 🇬🇬, South Africa 🇿🇦, New Zealand 🇳🇿, Pakistan 🇵🇰, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰, West Indies WI, Afghanistan 🇦🇫, Bangladesh 🇧🇩, Zimbabwe 🇿🇼, Ireland 🇮🇪, Netherlands 🇳🇱

Another 7 teams will compete in 'ICC Cricket World Cup League 2', scheduled from July 2019-2021. 126 matches will be played in this league and each team will play 36 matches. Top 3 teams will qualify for CWC Qualifier (2022) and the bottom 4 teams will be demoted to CWC Qualifier Play-Off (2022). Along with Scotland, UAE & Nepal, the top four teams from 2019 ICC WCL Division 2 which will be held in April 2019 will feature in this league.

ICC has divided the remaining 12 teams into two leagues namely 'ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League A (Aug 2019-2021)' & 'ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League B (Aug 2019-2021)'. Simultaneously, 6 teams will be competing in each league which is currently going on. 90 matches will be played in each league and 15 matches per team. Winners of both the leagues will progress to CWC Qualifier Play-Off (2022). Teams ranked from 21-32 in WCL Rankings as of April 2019 will compete in these two leagues.

In ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-Off (2022), along with both the challenge league winners, the bottom four teams from ICC CWC League 2 will compete, in 2022. Again, the top two teams will qualify for CWC Qualifier (2022) where the bottom 5 teams from the CWC Super League & top 3 teams from CWC League 2 will participate. In the last phase of qualification at the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier (2022), all these 10 teams will face-off for the remaining two World Cup berths.