As it was scheduled, amidst political issues, Zimbabwe will be hosting the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2018 with two-time World Cup title holder West Indies to be part of it. As per the ICC press release, the tournament will have a total of 10 teams in order to fill the remaining two places for coming World Cup 2019 participation. A total of 34 matches will be played across five different venues.
Queen’s Sports Club (QSC) and Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) in Bulawayo, Harare Sports Club (HSC) and Old Hararians Sports Club (OH) in Harare and Kwekwe Sports Club (KK), Kwekwe will host matches of the tournament between March 4 to 25. The final match will be played at Harare Sports Club. Teams such as West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland failed to qualify for the World Cup through automatic qualification by finishing outside top eight in the rankings till the cut-off date September 30, 2017.
Other sides to be part of this eventful tournament are Hong Kong, Netherlands, Scotland and Papua New Guinea. However, other two sides will be confirmed after the conclusion of ICC World Cricket League Division 2, which will be played between 8 to 15 February in Namibia. Canada, Kenya, Namibia, Nepal, Oman and United Arab Emirates are the teams to battle it out for the World Cup qualifier. The top two teams from this tournament will enter World Cup qualifier.
All 10 teams for World Cup qualifier will be segregated into two groups. Group A will have West Indies, Ireland, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea and winners of the ICC World Cricket League Division 2. Group B will include Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Hong Kong and runners-up of the ICC World Cricket League Division 2.
|
Group A |
Group B |
|
WI |
AFG |
|
IRE |
ZIM |
|
NED |
SCO |
|
PNG |
HK |
|
WCL DIV 2 Winner (A5) |
WCL DIV 2 runners-up (B5) |
Each team will play against each other from their respective group to battle for top three places in order to qualify for Super six stage. The Super six stage will have no group and teams which did not face each other in their group stage will face during this part of the tournament. Also, winning points from group stages will be carried over to Super six stage apart from those who gained against the bottom two from each group.
The finalists will qualify for World Cup 2019 as the 9th and 10th team, while Netherlands and three highest earned points by Associate members will earn ODI status till 2022. Netherlands ODI status got booked after winning the ICC World Cricket League Championship Winners.
The opening match will be played between Zimbabwe and Namibia on March 4 at Queen’s Sports Club, Bulawayo. Before the tournament, warm-up matches will be played on February 27 and March 1.
Tournament fixture (first round):
Sunday, 4 March – PNG v A5 at HSC; Ireland v Netherlands at OH; Zimbabwe v B5 at QSC; Afghanistan v Scotland, BAC
Tuesday, 6 March – PNG v Ireland at HSC; West Indies v A5 at OH; Zimbabwe v Afghanistan at QSC; Scotland v Hong Kong at BAC
Thursday, 8 March – Netherlands v A5 at HSC; Windies v PNG at OH; Scotland v B5 at QSC; Afghanistan v Hong Kong at BAC
Saturday, 10 March – West Indies v Ireland at HSC; PNG v Netherlands at OH; Zimbabwe v Hong Kong at QSC; Afghanistan v B5 at BAC
Monday, 12 March – West Indies v Netherlands at HSC; Ireland v A5 at OH; Hong Kong v B5 at QSC; Zimbabwe v Scotland at BAC
Super Sixes
Thursday, 15 March – A1 v B1 at HSC; A3 v B3 at QSC; A5 v B4 (play-off) at OH; A4 v B5 (play-off) at KK
Friday, 16 March – A2 v B2, HSC
Saturday, 17 March – 9th/10th position play-off at OH; 7th/8th position play-off at KK
Sunday, 18 March – A2 v B3 at HSC
Monday, 19 March – A1 v B2 at HSC
Tuesday, 20 March – A3 v B1 at HSC
Thursday, 22 March – A1 v B3 at HSC; A3 v B2 at OH
Friday, 23 March – A2 v B1 at HSC
Sunday, 25 March – FINAL at HSC
