December 16 (DNA) – The ICC has announced the qualifying system for the 2022 World T20 that will be played in Australia. 11 regional qualification tournaments across five regions have been rescheduled to 2021, due to COVID-19 and will now feed into the 2022 Australia event.
For the first time ever Hungary, Romania and Serbia will be competing for Men’s T20 World Cup qualification and Finland will play host to an ICC event for the very first time. At regional level there will be 67 Associate Members taking part. Due to the depth of strength within Africa and Europe, both regions have sub regional qualifiers feeding into a final qualifier for the region.
According to an ICC press release, it stated that the remaining eight spots will go to the four bottom teams from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 and together with Nepal, Singapore, UAE and Zimbabwe which have gained direct entry based on their MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings. Four teams from the two global qualifiers will join hosts Australia and the 11 automatic qualifiers from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 to make up the 16-team Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.
Total schedule shuffled
Due to the coronavirus situation, the ICC postponed the World T20 which was supposed to be held in 2020 in Australia to 2022 while India will host the 2021 World T20. The 16 teams that had originally qualified for the 2020 Australia event will now play in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in India. The participating teams for that event are Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies.
Chris Tetley, the ICC Head of events stated that this schedule highlighted the increasing competitiveness among the Associate Teams. “The pathway which culminates in the eighth Men’s T20 World Cup which will be held in Australia, sees the likes of Hungary, Romania and Serbia competing for the first time in an ICC event of this format, highlighting the increased competitiveness within Associate Members. In addition, a remarkable 225 Men’s T20 Internationals are scheduled to be played providing a substantial number of playing opportunities to all Members,” Tetley said.
