Oman Cricket (OC) will be hosting the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia – East Asia-Pacific combined Qualifier (Asia-EAP Qualifier) in October 2025. OC will host Men’s National teams of Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Kuwait, Malaysia, Japan, Qatar and United Arab Emirates in the 9-Nation tournament, with three (3) qualification spots on offer towards the 2026 event in India and Sri Lanka. While Nepal, Oman and Papua New Guinea were direct entrants in the combined Qualifier based on their participation and final finishing positions in the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean Islands, while the teams of Samoa, Kuwait, Malaysia, Japan, Qatar and United Arab Emirates have earned their place in the combined event through the Asia and East Asia-Pacific (EAP) sub-regional qualifiers held in 2024.
This takes away the uniqueness regarding the history of T20 World Cups, in terms of guaranteed representation from each of the five ICC regions (Asia, Europe, Africa, East Asia-Pacific and Americas) from the previous edition held in 2024 (instead of the Global Qualifier format used in the previous two (2) editions). The decision to merge the Asia and East Asia-Pacific (EAP) Qualifiers was taken during the 2024 ICC Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was not taken well by the Board officials of the countries based in the EAP region.
More to follow.
2 thoughts on “Oman Cricket to host 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia-EAP Qualifier in October 2025”
Hello,
Any idea about the format, will it be a Round Robin between 9 teams or the 9 teams will be divided in 2 parts?
Thanks
It’s most probably single round robin…no groupings