Cricket World Cup qualification is the process national cricket teams go through to qualify for the Cricket World Cup. The Cricket World Cup is a global event, and qualification is used to reduce the large field of participants from about 100 to 10–14. The qualification process has started as early as almost 7 years before the World Cup.
History
From the first World Cup in 1975 up to the 2019 World Cup, the majority of teams taking part qualified automatically. Until the 2015 World Cup this was mostly through having Full Membership of the ICC, and for the 2019 World Cup this was mostly through ranking position in the ICC ODI Championship.
Since the second World Cup in 1979 up to the 2019 World Cup, the teams that qualified automatically have been joined by a small number of others who qualified for the World Cup through the qualification process. The number of teams qualifying for the World Cup changed from event to event. The first qualifying tournament being the ICC Trophy;Cricinfo – 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland later the process expanding with pre-qualifying tournaments. Pre-qualifying tournaments were held within the five ICC regional bodies (Africa, Americas, Asia, East Asia-Pacific, Europe), and organized by their respective councils.
For the 2011 World Cup onwards, the past pre-qualifying processes were replaced by the World Cricket League, administered by the ICC; and the ICC Trophy became known as the ICC World Cup Qualifier,World Cricket League World Cricket League Overview and this remained the culmination of the qualification process and became the final stage of the World Cricket League competition. The World Cricket League was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status. All Associate members of the ICC were able to qualify for the World Cup.
While 12 teams participated in the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier and the top 4 teams qualified for the 2011 Cricket World Cup, at the ICC Chief Executives' Committee meeting in September 2011, the ICC decided on a new qualifying format for the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Two teams from the top tier of the pre-qualifying tournament, the 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship, qualified directly and did not compete in the 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, which decided the remaining two places.
For the 2019 World Cup, the host and the seven highest-ranked sides on the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings as on 30 September 2017 qualified directly for the event proper. The four bottom-ranked sides were joined by six teams from the ICC World Cricket League in the 10-team ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018, and the top two sides completed the 10-team World Cup line-up.
For the 2023 World Cup, only the host nation qualified automatically. 32 teams were divided into three leagues—Super League, League 2 and Challenge League—each with different paths to World Cup qualification. The leagues and supplementary qualifier and play-off tournaments also determined promotion and relegation between the leagues from one World Cup cycle to the next. The fourth World Cricket League competition was used for the initial placement of teams into the leagues for the 2023 World Cup qualifying, and has now been abolished.
Qualification berths
19791983198719921996199920032007201120152019202320272031 Total berths 8 8 8 8 9 12 12 14 16 14 14 10 10 14 Entered qualificationrowspan=3 15 16 16 17 20 22 24 64 32 36 Played in qualification 15 16 16 17 20 22 24 64 32 36 Qualified via qualification 2 1 1 1 3 3 4 6 4 4 2 9 4 Qualified without playing 8 6 7 7 8 9 9 10 10 10 10 8 1 10
Notes
First appearance in qualification by team Only teams that played at least one match are considered for first appearance. Teams that withdrew before the qualification, or that qualified to the World Cup by walkover due to other teams' withdrawals, are not considered.
Year Debuting teams Successor and renamed teams Asia Africa Americas East-Asia Pacific Europe 1975No qualification was held all the teams were invitees. 1979 15 15 1983 none none 5 20 1987 none none none none none 0 20 1992 none none none none none 0 20 1996 none none 3 23 1999 none none none none 2 25 2003 none none 4 29 2007 31 60 2011 none none none 2 62 2015 25 87 2019 none none none none 1 88 2023 none 6 94 2027 none none none none none 0 94
Teams' entries before their actual debuts in qualification
Successor and renamed teams
Other notes
Team performances
The teams that qualified automatically each time, and the performances of the other teams in the final qualifying tournament, are as follows.
World Cup:1975 WC1979 WC1983 WC1987 WC1992 WC1996 WC1999 WC2003 WC2007 WC2011 WC 2015 WC2019 WC2023 WC2027 WCQualifyingTournament:None1979 ICCTrophy1982 ICCTrophy1986 ICCTrophy1990 ICCTrophy1994 ICCTrophy1997 ICCTrophy2001 ICCTrophy2005 ICCTrophy2009WCQual2011WCLC'ship2014WCQual2018WCQual2023WCQual2027WCQualPre-qualifying:2007 Qual2007–09 WCL 2009–14 WCL2012–18 WCL2017–19 WCL Africa R1 R1 SF 2nd 2nd Auto (O) Auto (O) 4th 6th 5th =27th R1 15th 2nd 7th 8th 7th 6th 19th Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 8th Auto (H) 12th 10th 10th =23rd 1st 1st 1st Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) 3rd 12th Auto (H)Americas R1 R1 R1 R1 21st R1 SF 2nd 4th R1 4th 9th R1 4th 9th =31st 2nd R1 R1 R2 R2 7th 3rd 3rd 2nd 8th 8th 20th R1 R1 R1 R2 R1 12th 7th 10th 18th Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) 2nd 13th Asia 5th 2nd 1st 7th R1 4th R1 SF R2 1st Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 3rd R1 R1 R1 R2 8th R1 3rd 10th =25th Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) Auto (H) R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 16th R1 =29th R1 9th 8th 16th 9th 11th 14th Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 5th =25th R1 R1 R1 19th 14th R1 =27th Auto (I) 1st Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 9th 1st 10th 5th 6th 7th 3rd 2nd 6th 17th East Asia-Pacific Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 6th R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 11th R1 Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (R) 1st R1 3rd R1 R2 R1 13th R1 11th 4th 9th 22nd =31st Europe SF 3rd R2 R1 5th 6th 8th 12th =23rd Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (F) Auto (H) 2nd R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 20th =19th R1 R2 4th 8th 2nd 1st 1st 5th 15th R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 22nd R1 =19th R1 =29th 21st R1 R1 2nd 2nd 3rd 6th 1st 5th 3rd 4th 7th 7th 10th 3rd 4th 1st 6th 5th 1st 4th 11th Defunct teams Auto (I) R1 R1 R1 R1 18th 17th R1 R1 R1 17th 18th R1
Key:
Auto (F) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically through having Full Membership of the ICCAuto (H) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically as HostAuto (I) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically by InvitationAuto (O) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically through having ODI StatusAuto (R) Team qualified for Cricket World Cup automatically by Ranking position in the ICC ODI ChampionshipTeam qualified for Cricket World Cup through the Qualifying Tournament R1/R2Team reached First Round/Second Round in the Qualifying Tournament SFTeam reached Semi-Final in the Qualifying Tournament (no third-place play-off) 1st/2nd/etcTeam finished 1st/2nd/etc in the Qualifying TournamentTeam failed to reach final Qualifying Tournament
See also World Cricket League
References