What was previously know as the ICC World Cricket League Championships will be replaced by the newly formed ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) League 2 from 2019-2021. The tournament will be a qualification pathway to 2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers.
Scotland, UAE and Nepal have already qualified for ICC CWC League 2 based on their standings in the 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifiers and will be joined by the top 4 team’s from the final edition of ICC World Cricket League Division 2, to be held in Namibia from 18th – 28th Apr, 2019.
All the 4 qualifiers from Division 2 will be awarded ODI status and place in the ICC MRF ODI Team rankings along with Scotland, UAE and Nepal and will bring the total number of team’s having ODI status to 8 Associate member countries (Netherlands, already have the status and place in ICC CWC Super League), beyond the 12 Full members.
A total of 126 ODI’s will be played in the CWC League 2, which means that every member country will play a total of 36 ODI matches during the 2 1/2 year period, starting from May 2019. These matches will be played in a set of 21 Tri-series fixtures and each member country will host one Tri-series at home in the 2 1/2 period. The tournament will start in Jul 2019 after the end of 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
The top three sides from the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 will qualify for 2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, while the bottom four team’s will take part in the Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off tournament (Bottom 4 from League 2 + Top team from each of ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League groups A & B).
For the likes of Nepal, this will present a big opportunity to host three ODI Tri-series at home in the CWC League 2 tournament. All members in League 2 are however allowed to play or arrange ODI matches between each other outside of the league.
