2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2

The 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 is the first edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2, a cricket tournament which forms part of the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualification process. It is currently running from August 2019 to February 2023, with all matches played as One Day Internationals (ODIs). Each set of fixtures will take part as a tri-series.

Scotland, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates were joined by the top four teams from the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament. The first round of fixtures was played in Aberdeen, Scotland in August 2019.

The top three teams will advance to the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament, while the bottom four teams will have to go into the 2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off.

Originally, it was intended that the top ranked team in this CWC League 2 would be promoted to the next 2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League at the expense of its 13th ranked team - if the League 2 team finished as the higher of the two in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. The team ranked lower would then have played in the next edition of League 2. However, in November 2021 the ICC announced that there would not be a second edition of the Super League.

One or both of the bottom two teams in this League 2 competition will be relegated to the next Cricket World Cup Challenge League if, in the 2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off, they are outperformed by a top-ranked team from the 2019–2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge Leagues A or B. Whichever two of these four teams are ranked higher in that Qualifier Play-off, will play in the next League 2, while the two teams ranked lower will play in the next Challenge League.

Teams

The top three teams in the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 will qualify for the World Cup Qualifier while the bottom four go to the Qualifier Play-off.

Fixtures

The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed the following schedule of fixtures. In December 2020, the ICC announced a revised schedule following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2022, the ICC issued a further update for rounds nine to fifteen, with those rounds scheduled to take place from March to August 2022. Cricket Namibia also announced details of three rounds scheduled to take place in the country in September and November 2022.

As originally planned, each team would host three tri-series, each time joined by a different two of the other six teams. Each tri-series would comprise six matches (two between each pair of teams). Therefore, over the course of the whole tournament, each team would play each other team twice at home, twice away, and twice at a neutral venue. Some matches had to be re-scheduled for different times and venues (see below), so this original schedule did not happen fully as planned, but the teams remain on course to play a total of six fixtures against each other team.

Alterations

Two of Oman's home matches, against Namibia and UAE, which were cancelled during Round 4, were instead scheduled to be played in Namibia during Round 8 (although they were again postponed).

On 13 March 2020, the sixth round of matches, scheduled to take place in Lauderhill, Florida in April 2020, were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions to the United States. On 24 March 2020, the ICC also confirmed that rounds seven and eight, scheduled to take place in Namibia and Papua New Guinea respectively, had also been postponed. The ninth round of fixtures, scheduled to take place in Scotland in July 2020, were postponed on 10 June 2020. Round 10, scheduled to take place in Namibia in September 2020, was postponed on 23 July 2020.

In February 2021, the ICC confirmed that (newly numbered) rounds six, seven and eight of their updated schedule had also been postponed. Round six was scheduled to take place in Oman, with rounds seven and eight originally scheduled to be played in Papua New Guinea. Round 8 was rescheduled to take place in Namibia during November and December 2021. However, only two matches were played, before the remaining fixtures were postponed due to the discovery of a new variant of COVID-19 in Southern Africa.

In February 2022, Oman and UAE played a three-match bilateral series in Oman to make up for games that had been postponed in the earlier tri-series in Oman and Namibia.

Results

Results from the home and away matches are as follows:

Results from the neutral venue matches are as follows:

Points Table

Statistics

Most runs

Highest individual score

Most wickets

Best bowling figures in an innings

References

External links

Tournament home at ESPN Cricinfo

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2023 Cricket World Cup
International cricket competitions in 2019
International cricket competitions in 2019–20
International cricket competitions in 2020
International cricket competitions in 2020–21
International cricket competitions in 2021
International cricket competitions in 2021–22
International cricket competitions in 2022