USA Cricket has said it welcomed the International Cricket Council (ICC) decision to award an automatic qualification for Men’s T20 World Cup in 2024.
The US team (men’s) is now guaranteed to appear in what could be their first ever World Cup appearance, although both their men’s and women’s sides have a chance to qualify for the 2022 and 2023 events first themselves.
USA head coach J Arun Kumar said, “We are delighted to receive confirmation from the ICC that we will gain automatic qualification for the historic 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be co-hosted here in USA with the West Indies. For USA to play in the expanded 20 team T20 World Cup on home soil is going to be ground-breaking and historic for cricket as the sport continues to expand around the world and we’re really looking to being a part of it in 2024.”
After its board meeting in Dubai, the ICC said 12 teams will qualify automatically for the event. The top eight teams from the 2022 Twenty World Cup (in October-November in Australia) event will be joined by the two host members, West Indies and USA.
Two more qualifiers will be based on the ranking as of November 14, 2022, with the remaining eight spots to be decided through a regional qualification process with Africa, Asia and Europe each qualifying two teams and Americas and EAP one each.
“If West Indies finish in the top eight in Australia later this year, three teams will progress based on rankings and if outside the top eight two teams will qualify from the rankings table,” the ICC said in a release on Sunday (April 10).
“We are hopeful that it will in fact be a second T20 World Cup appearance though for our squad, as we are very focussed on the opportunity in front of us this year as we travel to Zimbabwe in July as one of the eight teams looking for the final two spots in the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022.
“We have been playing good cricket in recent times, with a first ever victory over a Test Nation vs Ireland in December in Florida. I’m also really pleased with the ever growing depth in our player pool as we have brought in a number of young, impressive home-grown talents that are going to help make up the future of the side for many years to come.”
The qualification pathway for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 has also been decided. Eight teams will gain automatic qualification into the event, comprising the top three teams from each group of the 2023 event plus host (if not in the six) and next highest ranked teams on the Women’s T20 rankings table at a pre-determined date. “The remaining two teams will be identified through the Women’s T20 World Cup global qualifier,” the release stated.
Women’s ODI World Cup qualification pathway reworked
The qualification pathway for the eight team Women’s ODI World Cup was also confirmed. The yet to be determined host of the event will automatically qualify along with the next five highest placed teams at the end of the 2022-25 ICC Women’s Championship (IWC). The remaining two teams will be identified through a global qualifying event between the four bottom-placed teams in the IWC plus an additional two teams from the ODI rankings.
The IWC 2017-20 – for the just-concluded 2022 ODI World Cup in New Zealand – allowed only the top-four sides plus the hosts to qualify directly.
The ICC also stated, in the same statement, that the Board has approved the recommendation to extend ODI status to a number of Associate Member women’s teams to enable them to progress to global qualifying events based on ODI rankings. (Cricbuzz)
