Making sense of the Cricket World Cup qualifying matches in 2018

As we know, the CWC 2019 will have 10 teams. These were to be the host (England) plus top 7 teams in the ODI rankings on 30/09/2017. This was the ranking table on that date:

The first 8 (including the host) qualified while the bottom 4 (WI, Afg, Zim, Ire) would account for 4 places in the qualifying rounds in 2018.

They would be joined by the 4 top teams in the WCL championship. which got over in Dec 2017. These are the results:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9317_ICC_World_Cricket_League_Championship#Points_table

Thus Netherlands, Scotland, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea make up the second group of 4.

The remaining 2 spots will be selected from the bottom 4 in the WCL and the top 2 from WCL division 3: (Kenya, UAE, Nepal, Namibia) + (Canada, Oman).

There could be some upsets here, but probably Kenya and UAE will get through here. (Update: It was Nepal and UAE who emerged from this).

Details of this mini-qualifier (to be held in Feb 8-15 in Namibia) are here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_ICC_World_Cricket_League_Division_Two

So we now have:WI, Afg, Zim, Ire, Neth, Sco, HK, PNG, Nep and UAE in the “main” qualifier to be held in Zimbabwe from March 4 to 25. These have been divided into two pools of 5. There will be Super Sixes but no semi-finals.

Now we see the ODI rankings as of today (Jan 16):

While there may be an occasional upset, it is very unlikely that the 2 qualifiers will be from the WCL teams. West Indies should have no trouble in qualifying, while there may be an interesting struggle for the other qualifying spot between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. Zimbabwe may have a slight home advantage. Ireland has generally declined in ODIs over the past year and may not challenge the other three seriously.

Final update: It was West Indies and Afghanistan who qualified for the 2019 World Cup.

 

A strange little cricket tournament

This was an international 50-over championship, but is not even considered as List A as the teams are not considered to be of a sufficient standard. This is one of the steps which need to be taken by teams aspiring for a higher status in cricket’s pecking order. In this recently conducted cricket tournament (held at Chiang Mai, Thailand), the participants were from different parts of Asia, ranging from Qatar to Bhutan to Thailand.

This was the points table:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-wcl-asia-region-division-1/engine/series/1089458.html?view=pointstable

Also, the determined cricket fan can skim through the results and scorecards:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-wcl-asia-region-division-1/engine/series/1089458.html

Note that China failed to cross three figures in all matches, with scores ranging from 28 to 74. Bhutan was slightly better as they beat China and once managed 104/9.

But one would be foolish to write off Chinese cricket. Hong Kong is doing well enough in the Associates. More importantly, remember how China came from nowhere to become a major force in the Olympics.

More about the lower rungs of cricket-playing countries in the link below. The rankings may not be up to date, but you do have a clear idea of who comes after Afghanistan and Ireland, with ranks going down to 30 (Italy) and 31 (Guernsey).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Cricket_League

Tail piece: Anyone in that area who was bored by the cricket could also have played porn ping pong at this place:

http://www.pornpinghotelchiangmai.com/