Cricket World Cup qualification is the process national cricket teams go through to qualify for the

Cricket World Cup The Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Men's Cricket World Cup) is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), e ...

. 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.

Qualification up to the 2019 World Cup

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 The ICC Men's ODI Team Rankings (formerly known as the ICC ODI Championship) is an international One Day International (ODI) cricket rankings system of the International Cricket Council (ICC). After every ODI match, the two teams involved recei ...

. 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 The ICC World Cup Qualifier (previously called the ICC Trophy and officially known as the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Qualifier) is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that serves as the culmination of the Cricket World Cup qualifi ...

; later the process expanding with pre-qualifying tournaments. Pre-qualifying tournaments were held within the five ICC regional bodies (

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, East Asia-Pacific,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

), and organized by their respective councils. For the 2011 World Cup onwards, the past pre-qualifying processes were replaced by the

World Cricket League The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of t ...

, administered by the ICC; and the ICC Trophy became known as the

ICC World Cup Qualifier The ICC World Cup Qualifier (previously called the ICC Trophy and officially known as the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Qualifier) is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that serves as the culmination of the Cricket World Cup qualifi ...

,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 Associate may refer to: Academics * Associate degree, a two-year educational degree in the United States, and some areas of Canada * Associate professor, an academic rank at a college or university * Technical associate or Senmonshi, a Japan ...

of the ICC were able to qualify for the World Cup. While 12 teams participated in the

2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier The 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place in April 2009 in South Africa. It was the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. The tournament is the renamed version ...

and the top 4 teams qualified for the

2011 Cricket World Cup The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and for the first time in Bangladesh. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, thus ...

, at the ICC Chief Executives' Committee meeting in September 2011, the ICC decided on a new qualifying format for the

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Aust ...

. 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 The 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that formed the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2015 World Cup. The top two teams qualified for the World Cup, joining Ireland and for the first time Af ...

, 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. The teams that qualified automatically each time, and the performances of the other teams in the final qualifying tournament, are as follows. Key:

Qualification from the 2023 World Cup onwards

From the 2023 World Cup onwards, only the host nation(s) will qualify automatically. 32 teams are divided into three leagues—

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

League 2 The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

and Challenge League—each with different paths to World Cup qualification. The leagues and supplementary qualifier and play-off tournaments also determine

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

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.

References

{{Cricket World Cup

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

Qualification for cricket competitions

Qualification up to the 2019 World Cup

Qualification from the 2023 World Cup onwards

See also

References