The 2019 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier was a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

tournament held during October and November 2019 in the United Arab Emirates to determine which teams would qualify for the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventu ...

tournament. The six teams finishing highest in the qualifier tournament joined

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

in the first group stage of the 2020 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. The tournament formed part of the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier series, with the Netherlands winning the final. In April 2018, the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC) granted full international status to

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have ...

men's matches played between member sides from 1 January 2019 onwards. Therefore, all the matches in the Regional Finals and the Qualifier itself, were played as full

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

s (T20Is). In July 2019, the ICC suspended

Zimbabwe Cricket Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), previously known as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) until 2004, is the governing body for the sport of cricket in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Cricket is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), and administers th ...

, with the team barred from taking part in ICC events, which put their participation in the tournament in doubt. The following month, with Zimbabwe banned from taking part in international cricket tournaments, the ICC named

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

as their replacement in the tournament.

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

were the first team to qualify for the 2020 ICC Men's T20 World Cup from the tournament, after they won Group A, finishing above the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

net run rate Net run rate (NRR) is a statistical method used in analysing teamwork and/or performance in cricket. It is the most commonly used method of ranking teams with equal points in limited overs league competitions, similar to goal difference in fo ...

. It was the first time that Papua New Guinea had qualified for a World Cup in any format.

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

became the second team to qualify when they won Group B, also on net run rate. Both teams also advanced to the playoff section of the qualifier. They were joined by the

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

from Group A, and

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

, the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

from Group B. In the first qualifier match in the playoffs, the Netherlands qualified for the T20 World Cup when they beat the United Arab Emirates by eight wickets, after the UAE only scored 80 runs in their innings. The second qualifier match saw Namibia advance to their first T20 World Cup after beating Oman by 54 runs. Scotland beat tournament hosts the United Arab Emirates in the third qualifier by 90 runs to secure their place in the Men's T20 World Cup. The final qualifier match saw Oman become the last team to qualify for the Men's T20 World Cup, after they narrowly beat Hong Kong by 12 runs. Scotland beat Oman by five wickets to win the fifth-place playoff match. In the first semi-final, the Netherlands beat Ireland by 21 runs to advance to the final. They were joined in the final with Papua New Guinea, after they beat Namibia by 18 runs in the second semi-final. Ireland beat Namibia by 27 runs to win the third-place playoff. The final saw the Netherlands beat Papua New Guinea by seven wickets to win the tournament. Namibia's captain, Gerhard Erasmus, was named the player of the tournament.

Teams and qualifications

Sub-regional qualification groups began on 26 February 2018 in Argentina. In the Americas group, both the Cayman Islands and

Bermuda ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , ...

registered wins against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

. A total of 61 Associate Member teams out of originally scheduled 62 teams competed.

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are ...

were originally scheduled to compete in the Southern sub region group in the Africa Qualifier, but later withdrew. Of these teams, 25 of them progressed to the regional finals in 2019, with the top sevenThe

initially qualified to the Asia Regional Final, but later automatically progressed to the qualifier tournament as the host. teams progressing to the qualifier tournament. They were joined by the top six teams from the 2015 qualifier that were outside the top ten places in the ICC T20I Championship by the cut-off date of 31 December 2018, and the tournament host.

ICC T20I Championship

Host nation, Australia, and the nine best teams (according to the ICC T20I Championship ranking of 31 December 2018) who played in the last edition of ICC Men's T20 World Cup qualified for the final tournament directly. The remaining six entrants from the last tournament competed in the Regional Qualifiers of the World Cup qualifying tournaments. Of the teams in the ICC T20I Championship ranking, initially the

and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

could only qualify through regional competitions. However, in March 2019, the ICC announced that the UAE would host the qualifier tournament, resulting in their automatic qualification. Later the same month, the ICC released the match schedule for all the Regional Finals, with the UAE omitted from the fixture list for the Asia Regional Final. The number of teams that could qualify from the Asia Regional Final was also reduced from two to one. The final rankings for automatic qualification as of 31 December 2018 were as follows:

Regional qualifications

62 teams were originally scheduled to compete in 12 regional qualification groups during 2018 across five regions, with 61 taking part. The top 25 teams progressed to five regional finals in 2019, with eight teams progressing to the 2019 qualifier tournament. The host nation of each sub-regional group and regional final groups are shown in bold. All the sub-regional stage matches in the European section were held in the Netherlands.

Squads

UAE squad

Ahead of the tournament, Mohammad Naveed was withdrawn from the UAE's squad, with Ahmed Raza named as captain in his place. Qadeer Ahmed and Shaiman Anwar were also dropped from the UAE's squad, with

Waheed Ahmed Waheed Ahmed (born 15 November 1985) is a Pakistani-born cricketer who plays for the United Arab Emirates national cricket team. He made his Twenty20 debut for the United Arab Emirates against the England Lions on 4 December 2015. In March 2019 ...

, Darius D'Silva and Junaid Sidique added to their squad. Two days before the start of the tournament, the ICC confirmed that the three players dropped from the UAE's squad had all been suspended after they had breached cricket's anti-corruption rules. Mohammad Naveed and Shaiman Anwar were believed to be planning to fix matches in the tournament, while Qadeer Ahmed was approached to fix a match during the UAE's tour of Zimbabwe in April 2019. On 21 October 2019, Ashfaq Ahmed became the fourth UAE cricketer to be suspended by the ICC. Ahmed had played in the first two matches for the team in the tournament. On 21 October 2019,

Ghulam Shabber Ghulam Shabber ( ur, ; born 12 December 1985) is a Pakistani-born cricketer who played for the United Arab Emirates national cricket team. He made his List A debut for the United Arab Emirates cricket team in their three-match series against O ...

, the UAE's

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. T ...

, did not show up for the pre-match meeting ahead of the fixture against

. It later transpired that Shabber had left the country without an explanation, before being traced to Pakistan. On 26 October 2019, in an interview for '' The National'', Shabber denied any involvement with corruption and announced his retirement from cricket, citing the poor remuneration for playing. He said that "if there is something with regards to anti-corruption, I am ready to cooperate in Pakistan. But I have decided cricket is not in my future". Following the conclusion of the group stage, the ICC's Event Technical Committee approved two replacements in the UAE's squad. Faizan Asif replaced Ashfaq Ahmed and

Vriitya Aravind Vriitya Aravind (born 11 June 2002) is an Indian-born cricketer who plays for the United Arab Emirates national cricket team. He plays as wicket-keeper batsman for the United Arab Emirates cricket team. In October 2019, he was added to the UAE' ...

was named as Ghulam Shabber's replacement. On 30 October 2019, the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that they had suspended Shabber for absconding, and that he was part of the ICC's anti-corruption investigation. In March 2021, Mohammad Naveed and Shaiman Anwar were both found guilty of corruption, with each player given an eight-year ban from all cricket, backdated to 16 October 2019. In July 2021, the ICC also handed eight-year bans to

Amir Hayat Amir Hayat (born 28 August 1982) is a Pakistani-born cricketer who played for the United Arab Emirates national cricket team. He made his first-class debut for the United Arab Emirates against Afghanistan in the 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental C ...

and Ashfaq Ahmed for violating the anti-corruption code. Their bans were both backdated to 13 September 2020. In September 2021, the ICC also issued a four-year ban to Ghulam Shabber, following the conclusion of their anti-corruption investigation.

Other changes

In September 2019, ahead of the 2019–20 Oman Pentangular Series, Hong Kong's Babar Hayat declared that he was no longer available to play for Hong Kong. Brothers Tanveer Ahmed and Ehsan Nawaz also withdrew themselves for selection.

Anantha Krishna Anantha Krishna (born 1 February 1991) is a Singaporean cricketer. He played in the 2017 ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament, and was the leading wicket-taker for Singapore, with ten dismissals in six matches. In August 2018, he w ...

was ruled out of Singapore's squad after suffering an injury in a training session. He was replaced by

Aahan Gopinath Achar Aahan Gopinath Achar (born 30 March 1999) is a Singaporean cricketer. In October 2018, he was named in Singapore's squad for the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament in Oman. He played in Singapore's fixture against Kenya on 1 ...

. On 24 October 2019, the ICC announced that the

bowling actions In the sport of cricket, the bowling action is the set of movements that result in the bowler releasing the ball in the direction of the batsman. The bowling action can be broken down into a number of parts: * Grip *Approach *Bound (pre deliv ...

Abiodun Abioye Abiodun Abioye (born 21 November 1992) is a Nigerian cricketer. He played in the 2016 ICC World Cricket League Division Five tournament in Jersey. He was a member of Nigeria's squad for the 2018 Africa T20 Cup and made his Twenty20 debut for Ni ...

(Nigeria),

Tom Sole Thomas Barclay Sole (born 12 June 1996) is a Scottish cricketer. He made his List A debut for Northamptonshire against the South Africans team on 21 May 2017, during South Africa's tour of England. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut f ...

(Scotland) and Selladore Vijayakumar (Singapore) were all found to be

illegal Illegal, or unlawful, typically describes something that is explicitly prohibited by law, or is otherwise forbidden by a state or other governing body. Illegal may also refer to: Law * Violation of law * Crime, the practice of breaking the cr ...

. They were all suspended from bowling in international cricket matches until an assessment shows that their bowling action is legal. Ahead of the playoff matches, Dylan Budge replaced Ollie Hairs in Scotland's squad, after Hairs suffered a fracture in his foot. Ireland also made a replacement, with Barry McCarthy coming into their squad, replacing David Delany, who was ruled out with a knee injury.

Match officials

In October 2019, the ICC named the officials for the tournament, with

G. S. Lakshmi Gandikota Sarva Lakshmi is an Indian cricket match referee and a former domestic cricket player and coach. She was a right handed batswoman and right-arm fast-medium outswing bowler. Lakshmi became the first woman to be appointed to the Inte ...

becoming the first woman to be named as a referee at an ICC event.

Umpires

* Roland Black *

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. According to ''Billboard'', Brown is one of the most successful R&B singers of his generation, having often been referred to by many contempor ...

* Lyndon Hannibal *

Sam Nogajski Samuel J Nogajski (born 1 January 1979) is an Australian cricket umpire. He stood as an umpire in the 2016–17 Ranji Trophy in India. Umpiring career He stood in his first Twenty20 International (T20I) on 19 February 2017, in the match betwee ...

* Ahmed Shah Pakteen *

Allahudien Paleker Allahudien Paleker (born 1 January 1978) is a South African cricket umpire and former cricketer of Maharashtrian descent with roots tracing back to Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, India. As an umpire, he has stood in matches in the 2015–16 ...

* Sundaram Ravi * Ahsan Raza *

Rashid Riaz Rashid Riaz (born 27 February 1976) is a Pakistani cricket umpire and former first-class cricketer. He is now an umpire and has stood in matches in the 2015–16 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. He stood in his first Twenty20 International (T20I) match betwe ...

* Sharfuddoula * Alex Wharf * Raveendra Wimalasiri

Referees

The ICC also named three match referees for the tournament. * Jeff Crowe *

* Gerrie Pienaar

Warm-up matches

Ahead of the main tournament, each team played two warm-up matches. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group stage

Group A

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Playoffs

Bracket

Qualifier 1

Qualifier 2

Qualifier 3

Qualifier 4

5th Place Playoff

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

3rd Place Playoff

Final

Final standings

These were the final standings following the conclusion of the tournament. The top six places were used for seeding purposes for the 2020 Men's T20 World Cup. Qualified for the

Notes

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:2019 ICC Men's World Twenty20 2019 in Emirati cricket 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup International cricket competitions in 2019–20 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier International cricket competitions in the United Arab Emirates ICC ICC