Poor weather delays World Cup qualifiers by two months

Posted by Admin April 17, 2024 Cricket

Scotland will play 36 ODIs in the next three years in a bid to reach the next stage of World Cup qualification

The Cricket World Cup League 2 tournament between Scotland, Namibia and Oman in May near Dundee has been postponed as “unprecedented poor weather” has delayed pitch preparation.

The round-robin event at Forthill, home of Forfarshire, was to be held from 2-12 May but will now be staged in July.

Adverse weather has affected work on the square and ground infrastructure.

The decision was taken following consultation between the three competing nations and the ICC.

CWC L2 is an eight-team competition – the other countries are the Netherlands, Canada, the UAE, the United States and Nepal – that will run over three years and is part of the qualification process for the 2027 World Cup.

Each team will play 36 one-day internationals across nine triangular series up to December 2026, with the top four teams going to a final 10-team World Cup qualifier.

The bottom four CWC L2 countries will face teams from the lower-tier CWC Challenge League to try to secure a place in the World Cup qualifier.

The two bottom-ranked teams in the overall ODI rankings will be the final two sides in the World Cup qualifier.

The top four from the World Cup qualifier will advance to the finals in October and November 2027, when 14 teams will compete in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia over 54 matches.

Two of the three co-hosts – South Africa and Zimbabwe – as well as eight of the other 10 top-ranked teams in the ODI rankings will qualify automatically.

The T20 international between Scotland and Oman that was scheduled for Tuesday, 14 May at Forfarshire has been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.

“The unprecedented poor weather we have seen this spring across the country has left an extremely high volume of water on the ground,” said Cricket Scotland’s head of operations and commercial Paul Macari.

“It would be hugely challenging to run this series in May without significant disruption to the playing schedule.

“I would like to thank everyone at Forfarshire CC for their efforts in recent weeks in extremely difficult circumstances.

“Hopefully we will have better weather and playing conditions to look forward to in July.”

Cricket World Cup League 2 rescheduled dates:

Tuesday, 16 July: Scotland v Oman

Thursday, 18 July: Oman v Namibia

Saturday, 20 July: Scotland v Namibia

Monday, 22 July: Scotland v Oman

Wednesday, 24 July: Oman v Namibia

Friday, 26 July: Scotland v Namibia