The qualification process for 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia has been confirmed by International Cricket Council (ICC); and the format will follow the one announced earlier for 2021 edition before COVID-19 pandemic postponed the 2020 edition of the tournament to 2022. However, the World Cup will again feature 16 overall nations competing for the title.
The five ICC regions (Africa, Americas, Asia, East-Asia Pacific and Europe) will see 11 regional qualification events (sub-regional and regional finals) take place, with eight teams progressing to one of two global qualifying events. All the sub-regional/regional qualification events will take place in 2021, at the conclusion of which, the eight teams will join the bottom four teams from the 01st round of ICC T20 Men’s World Cup 2021 in India and the four best T20I ranked teams as of 01st Jan 2020: Zimbabwe, Nepal, UAE and Singapore. Hence, these four teams will not be taking part in the regional qualification tournaments.
The 12 teams, which make round two of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in India will gain automatic entry into the 2022 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 in February and May 2022. After the conclusion of the 1st round of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, the distribution of teams across the two global qualifying events will be announced by ICC.
The grouping will be most likely be done based on the team rankings for the qualifying teams at the time of announcement.
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 2022. Africa will have two sub-regional qualifiers followed by regional final, Asia will have two sub-regional qualifiers, Europe will have three sub-regional qualifiers followed by regional final, while East Asia-Pacific and Americas will directly have the regional finals.
In the lead up to the Australia event there will be 225 Men’s T20 Internationals scheduled to be played across 13 months, giving every team an opportunity to climb the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings.
ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley said on ICC website “We are delighted to announce qualification for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022. The pathway which culminates in the eighth Men’s T20 World Cup which will be held in Australia, sees the likes of Hungary, Romania and Serbia competing for the first time in an ICC event of this format, highlighting the increased competitiveness within Associate Members. In addition, a remarkable 225 Men’s T20 Internationals are scheduled to be played providing a substantial number of playing opportunities to all Members.”
