The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 begins in Kathmandu on Thursday with Namibia, the Netherlands and hosts Nepal featuring in the first of 24 tri-series that will take four teams to within one step of qualifying for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027 to be played in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Canada, Oman, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America are the other teams in the eight-team league that will comprise 144 matches in the lead up to the World Cup Qualifier.
The top four teams from League 2 will make it to the World Cup Qualifier. They will be joined in the Qualifier by four teams coming through the Qualifier Play-Offs as well as teams that don’t qualify automatically based on ICC ODI Rankings.
Teams were placed in the World Cup League 2 and the Qualifier Play-Offs, based on the previous World Cup Qualification cycle.
The top four teams in the Qualifier, a highly competitive event that saw two-time world champions West Indies knocked out last time, will join 10 direct qualifiers in the World Cup. Co-hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe and the other top eight ranked teams will complete the 14-team World Cup lineup.
“We are pleased to be hosting the first tri-series of what promises to be a well-contested League 2 with several talented sides in the fray,” Nepal captain Rohit Paudel said.
“These are exciting times for us with the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 less than four months away and our qualification campaign starting for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027.
“We are heartened and more confident after a 3-0 win over Canada in the just concluded series and hope to get off to a fine start in League 2 with this home tri-series,” Paudel further added.
Fixtures:
Match 1: Thursday, Feb 15: Nepal vs Namibia
Match 2: Saturday, Feb 17: Nepal vs Netherlands
Match 3: Wednesday, Feb 21: Nepal vs Namibia
Match 4: Sunday, Feb 25: Nepal vs Netherlands
