With over an year to go for cricket’s biggest extravaganza to begin the 10 qualifying teams for ICC World Cup 2019 are now confirmed. Earlier, the hosts, England, along with the top seven teams in the ICC ODI rankings as of 30 September 2017 earned direct qualification and the remaining two spots were decided by the 2018 World Cup Qualifier held at Zimbabwe.
Three times champion West Indies attained the first qualification spot by beating Scotland in last round of super six games. On the other hand, Afghanistan snatched the second qualification spot by beating Ireland in a virtual knockout.
The ten teams play each other, and the top four teams progress to the knockout stage of semi-finals and a final. This is the same procedure that was used in Womens World Cup, last year.
Given the increase of the Test playing nations from 10 to 12, with the admission of Ireland and Afghanistan in June 2017, it will be the first World Cup to be contested without all of the Test playing nations being present and this will also be the first World cup to feature no Associate members.
Anonymous fan reaction
“The 10 teams format has faced immense criticism from cricket pundits as well as the fans. It is a negative move for upbringing cricket as a global sports. Ireland’s captain William Porterfield’s emotional speech after failing to make in the World Cup was a heartbreak for all of us and all the cricketing fans around the world. ICC should bring in alot more teams like Fifa do”
