The 2023 ICC CWC Challenge League play-off tournament will be the final opportunity for Associate member countries to secure ODI status for the next four-year cycle until 2026. The tournament will provide ODI status for the top two (2) teams (if the top 2 teams have already secured their status in the final CWC League 2 standings, then the next positioned non-ODI teams currently in the points table) in the final standings in the six (6)-nation event.
Top team from both the groups (A and B) in the Challenge League will advance to 2023 Challenge League play-off, where they will join the bottom four (4) teams from Cricket World Cup (CWC) League 2 championship and form the 6-nation play-off tournament. The top 2 team’s from the play-off tournament will advance to 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe. The Top five (5) teams in the seven (7) team CWC League 2 championships points table will retain their ODI status until the next ODI World Cup qualifier for 2027 edition (to be hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia).
How the structure of the Challenge League groups will be in the next cycle needs to be seen after the demise of the CWC Super League structure towards qualification towards World Cup. When the Play-off tournament was announced, it was expected that the bottom two (2) teams in the tournament will be back in the Challenge League group structure for the next cycle and the bottom two (2) teams in the groups A and B of the Challenge League will have to qualify back in via competing with other Associate members in their respective regions (which could very well be chosen based on the country’s T20I team rankings).
