Under the revised qualification pathway process announced by International Cricket Council (ICC) for 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the European regional pathway program has changed a bit from the previous one used in 2018/2019.
As per the new pathway process, the European region will have the regulation three sub-regional qualifiers; however, instead of the top two teams of the two sub-regional events that advanced to the regional finals in 2019, the new structure will see the top team from each sub-regional event progress to the Europe final. However, unlike in 2018, when Netherlands hosted all the three sub-regional qualifiers at the same time, the 2020 sub-regional qualifiers will be hosted by three different countries.
In a significant boost for European Associate cricket landscape, the top two teams from the four team European regional finals will advance to one of the two global qualifiers for 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Jersey, who took part in the 2020 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup global qualifiers in Oct/Nov 2019 in UAE, will go diectly into the European regional finals as the top-ranked team in Europe as of 01st Jan 2020.
All Members who meet the ICC Event Participation Criteria (EPPC) will be eligible to participate in the regional qualification tournaments for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
The 12 teams, which make round two of the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia will gain automatic entry into the 2021 event the following year. They will be joined by four more teams, who will qualify from the two global qualifying events (top two teams progressing from each of the global qualifiers). The two eight-team global qualifiers will take place between Mar/Jul 2021. After the conclusion of the 1st round of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020, the distribution of teams across the two global qualifying events will be announced by ICC.
