World Cricket League

World Cricket League

Official logo
Administrator	International Cricket Council
Format	One Day International List A
First edition	2007-09
Tournament format	League system
Number of teams	87 nations
Current champion	Ireland
Most successful	Ireland (1 victory)

The ICC World Cricket League is a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status, administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC are eligible to compete in the league system, which features a promotion and relegation structure between divisions. The league system has two main aims: to provide a qualification system for the World Cup that can be accessed by all associate and affliate members, and as an opportunity for these sides to play international one-day matches against teams of similar standards.

In the inaugural ICC World Cricket League 2007-09, teams were allocated into divisions based on their performance in the qualification tournaments for the 2007 World Cup; the six initial teams in Division One were the teams that qualified for the 2007 World Cup. The initial series began with regional qualifiers and a First Division in 2007, and ended with the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier. At this stage, there were only five divisions.

The second cycle began in 2009 with three additional divisions.

Structure

The initial league began in 2007 with seven tournaments over five global divisions, based upon previous world rankings. This was expanded into eight separate divisions for the 2009-13 edition. In the first cycle, the number of teams in each tournament varied from six to twelve. With the advent of the second cycle, the number of teams had regularised to six for each tournament. The exception is the lowest division, Division 8, in which eight teams play. The final of each cycle, the World Cup Qualifier, contains twelve teams as it is a combination of Divisions 1,2 and 3.

When most of the divisions are played, two teams will be promoted, two relegated and two remain for the next installment, two years later. There are some occasions when this is not the case. When Division 8 is played, though two teams are promoted, only one remains and the bottom five drop out of the system. They are replaced by the top five teams from recent regional events for the next installment. At the end of each cycle, the World Cup Qualifier is played featuring the top twelve teams. According to the results, the top six qualify for Division 1 of the next cycle. The teams that finish seventh to tenth in this tournament proceed to Division 2 and the bottom two are relegated to Division 3. Teams in Division 1 gain ODI status and the top four qualify for the Cricket World Cup. In addition, there is no promotion or relegation so the teams remain until the next World Cup Qualifier is played.

Regional tournaments, which acted as qualifiers for the lower divisions of the first cycle of the World league, and continue to do so for Division 8 in subsuquent cycles, are administered by the five Development Regions of the International Cricket Council: Africa, Americas, Asia, East Asia-Pacific, and Europe.

Associate nations' one-day rankings

Joel Olweny, Captain of the Uganda Cricket team

In late 2005, the International Cricket Council ranked the top non-Test nations from 11-30 to complement the Test nations' rankings in the ICC ODI Championship. The ICC used the results from the 2005 ICC Trophy and WCQS Division 2 competition (i.e. the primary qualification mechanisms for the 2007 Cricket World Cup) to rank the nations.

These rankings were used to seed the initial stage of the global World Cricket League. Teams ranked 11-16 were placed into Division 1; teams 17-20 were placed into Division 2; teams 21-24 were placed into Division 3; the remaining teams were placed into the upper divisions of their respective regional qualifiers.

As of 19 April 2009 the top six associates/affiliates gained one day status. Kenya and Ireland have both qualified to appear on the main rating table, Kenya from its existing status and Ireland for its two victories in the 2007 World Cup. Afghanistan, Canada, Netherlands, and Scotland remain on the secondary table. In May 2009, the ICC added a rankings table for all associate and affiliate members. This contained both global and regional placings and can be seen below:

Rankings

Ranks as at 14 October 2009 according to ICC:

Rank	Nation	Regional Rank
11	Ireland	Europe No.1 Associate/Affiliate member
12	Kenya	Africa No. 1 Associate/Affiliate member
13	Netherlands	Europe 2
14	Afghanistan	Asia No. 1 Associate/Affiliate member
15	Scotland	Europe 3
16	Canada	Americas No.1 Associate/Affiliate member
17	United Arab Emirates	Asia 2
18	Namibia	Africa 2
19	Bermuda	Americas 2
20	Uganda	Africa 3
21	Oman	Asia 3
22	Denmark	Europe 4
23	Papua New Guinea	East Asia - Pacific No.1 Associate/Affiliate member
24	Hong Kong	Asia 4
25	Cayman Islands	Americas 3
26	Argentina	Americas 4
27	Italy	Europe 5
28	Tanzania	Africa 4
29	Nepal	Asia 5
30	United States	Americas 5
31	Bahrain	Asia 6
32	Singapore	Asia 7
33	Jersey	Europe 6
34	Fiji	EAP 2
35	Guernsey	Europe 7
36	Malaysia	Asia 8
37	Botswana	Africa 5
38	Norway	Europe 8
39	Nigeria	Africa 6
40	Japan	EAP 3
41	Suriname	Americas 6
42	Gibraltar	Europe 9
=43	Bahamas	Americas 7
=43	Bhutan	Asia 9/10
=43	Kuwait	Asia 9/10
=43	Vanuatu	EAP 4

Regional Rankings

Africa	Americas	Asia	East-Asia Pacific	Europe
7 - Zambia	8 - Panama	11 - Qatar	5 - Samoa	10 - France
8 - Mozambique	9 - Turks & Caicos	12 - Saudi Arabia	6 - Cook Islands	11 - Germany
9 - Ghana	10 - Brazil	13 - Maldives	7 - Tonga	12 - Croatia
10 - Swaziland	11 - Belize	14 - Thailand	8 - Indonesia	13 - Israel
11 - Malawi	12 - Chile	15 - Iran	9-10 - Philippines	14 - Isle of Man
12 - Sierra Leone	13 - Peru	16 - Brunei	9-10 - South Korea	15 - Spain
13 - Rwanda	14-17 - Costa Rica	17 - China		16 - Belgium
14 - Gambia	14-17 - Cuba	18 - Myanmar		17 - Portugal
15 - Lesotho	14-17 - Falkland Islands			18 - Cyprus
16 - Morocco	14-17 - Mexico			19 - Malta
17-19 - Cameroon				20 - Switzerland
17-19 - Mali				21 - Austria
17-19 - St. Helena				22 - Luxembourg
				23 - Finland
				24 - Greece
				25 - Slovenia
				26 - Sweden
				27 - Czech Republic
				28 - Bulgaria
				29 - Estonia
				30 - Turkey

Results

Summary

Details	Host Nation(s)	Final Venue	Final
			Winner	Result	Runner-up
2007-09	Various	South Africa	Ireland 188/1 (42.3 overs)	Ireland won by 9 wickets Scorecard	Canada 185 all out (48 overs)
2009-13

Division Results

2007-2009
Details	Host Nation(s)	Final Venue	Final
			Winner	Result	Runner-up
2007 Division One	Kenya	Nairobi Gymkhana Club, Nairobi	Kenya 158/2 (37.5 overs)	Kenya won by 8 wickets Scorecard	Scotland 155 all out (47 overs)
2007 Division Three	Australia	Gardens Oval, Darwin	Uganda 241/8 (50 overs)	Uganda won by 91 runs scorecard	Argentina 150 all out (46.3 overs)
2007 Division Two	Namibia	Wanderers Cricket Ground, Windhoek	United Arab Emirates 347/8 (50 overs)	United Arab Emirates won by 67 runs scorecard	Oman 280 all out (43.2 overs)
2008 Division Five	Jersey	Grainville, St Saviour	Afghanistan 81/8 (37.4 overs)	Afghanistan won by 2 wickets Scorecard	Jersey 80 all out (39.5 overs)
2008 Division Four	Tanzania	Kinondoni Ground, Dar es Salaam	Afghanistan 179 all out (49.4 overs)	Afghanistan won by 57 runs Scorecard	Hong Kong 122 all out (45.0 overs)
2009 Division Three	Argentina	Belgrano Athletic Club Buenos Aires	Afghanistan +0.971(NRR)	Afghanistan won on net run rate Table	Uganda +0.768(NRR)
2009 WC Qualifier	South Africa	SuperSport Park Centurion, Gauteng	Ireland 188/1 (42.3 overs)	Ireland won by 9 wickets (scorecard)	Canada 185 all out (48 overs)
2009-2013
2009 Division Seven	Guernsey	King George V Sports Ground, Castel	Bahrain 207/7 (46.1 overs)	Bahrain won by 3 wickets (scorecard)	Guernsey 204/9 (50.0 overs)
2009 Division Six	Singapore	Kallang Cricket Ground, Singapore	Singapore 242/8 (50.0 overs)	Singapore won by 68 runs (scorecard)	Bahrain 174 all out (48.4 overs)

See also

• ICC Intercontinental Cup - the equivalent first class competition

External links

• ICC - World Cricket League