Europe not getting a fair deal with 18 nations compete for just one spot

International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced the schedule for the 18-Nation ICC World T20 European qualifiers with 6 teams placed in each of the 3 groups, namely Europe A, Europe B and Europe C qualifiers. The cut-throat world of Associate cricket has never been so visible than these qualifiers as there will be eventually just one nation, which will get to advance to global qualifiers in 2019.

Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany and Portugal are placed in Europe A group, with Salland CC in Deventer and Kampong CC in Utrecht as the venues for the group phase matches. All round robin days of play on 29th Aug, 30th Aug & 01st Sep will see 2 games played each in the morning session and afternoon session. The final group phase day will see the last 3 matches (2 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon) remaining in the group.

Germany and Denmark played a 5-match T20 series recently and will keep them in good stead ahead of the qualifiers. Jersey and Guernsey played their annual Inter-insular series in a 3-match T20 games format in 2018 to prepare themselves for the qualifiers. Belgium and Austria took part in the 2018 Continental Cup in Schiedem, Netherlands few weeks ago and will have the experience of playing in the Dutch conditions.

Czech Republic have had plenty of T20 games in tournaments at home and overseas in Europe in the lead-up to the qualifiers while players from other countries have been having domestic T20/T10 competitions to keep their national squad members ready for the bigger challenges ahead.

18 countries fighting for eventually just one spot is hardly a fair viewpoint to judge the credibility for all the participants. Agreed that this is one of the biggest ensemble of countries at the same place after a long gap of time but with Europe having 33 members (including England) and only 18 participating in the qualifiers, also shows that there is gap among the remaining countries, who have not been able to take part in ICC events for some time now.

Europe B group consists of Belgium, Finland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey and Spain and Europe C group consists of Czech Republic, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Israel, Norway and Sweden. All the team’s from both the groups will be based in Rotterdam with group fixtures set to take place at VCC, VRA, VOC and Excelsior ’20 grounds in Voorburg, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Schiedam respectively.

The tournament, to be hosted by Netherlands Cricket Board (KNCB) from 29th Aug – 03rd Sep 2018, with the top two teams from each group going through to ICC World T20 Europe Regional Finals in 2019. All morning matches will begin at 11 am local time while the afternoon matches will begin at 4 pm local time.

ICC Europe A qualifiers:

ICC Europe B qualifiers:

ICC Europe C qualifiers:

The biggest ensemble of European Associate members in the same place for an ICC Global tournament qualifiers signifies the astounding work done by ICC Europe and the ICC Development team in growing the sport more in all parts & regions of Europe.