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About 10 months to go before the flagship event. 6 months to go for the qualifiers. The last 3 World Cups have been won by the host nation...will the streak continue?

This is actually going to be a thread for the Qualifiers and up until the actual WC itself.

At the moment the top 3 in League 2 (automatical entry to WC Qualifer) look to be Scotland, Oman, and Namibia. The other teams along with the top two teams from the Challenge league will play a qualifier for the qualifier (confused anyone?).

So far the berths for the 10-team WCQ looks like the following:

1) Sri Lanka
2) Ireland
3) South Africa
4) Zimbabwe
5) Netherlands

6) Scotland
7) Oman
8) Namibia

The final 2 spots will be amongst USA, UAE, Nepal, PNG, Canada, and Jersey.

Assuming USA and UAE qualify, the 2023 Qualifier will be a much tougher contest than the 2018 was. There are no "pushover" sides that are there to just make up the numbers unlike last time. On top of that South Africa, who are perennial contenders, will be scrapping it out in the middle.

South Africa may yet qualify automatically at the expense of the West Indies. That being said, if South Africa does end up in the qualifiers I don't feel they are a guaranteed lock - I could easily seem them collapsing in a chase of 240 in a semifinal against the Netherlands or Ireland. The same goes for the West Indies.

I like Zimbabwe’s chances against Sri Lanka & Windies more so than South Africa, but I feel that’s a pretty obvious statement. I actually think the Proteas have a good ODI side at the moment, with their batsman more suited to limited overs cricket rather than Test.

Sri Lanka are still searching for a group of world class players, they seem to swapping guys in and out all the time and I’d have no idea what their best XI is atm. Zimbabwe has done well recently against the Islander nation, with the games split 5-5 in the last 10 meetings.

The Windies seem really low at the moment, but there’s always the chance they’ll get some guys back just in time for the qualifiers, especially considering the World Cup is only a few months later. I think we might see some guys return to the fold for a 6-month contract.

As Kriterion mentioned, the overall quality of the tournament is going to be a lot higher than last time around. Zimbabwe had easy games v Nepal & Hong Kong in the group stages, although it was another ‘easy opponent’ that ultimately brought them undone.

One thing to remember is that the Zimbabwe side that went into the last edition wasn’t operating on full cylinders. Only BT & Raza played more than one meaningful innings throughout, and IIRC the bowlers did well as a unit, but no one really stood out and took a bag full of wickets apart from Raza who had 15 or so.

There was also the underlying issues around selection, the uneasy relationship between Streak & the board plus payment issues which were bubbling under the surface. This time around, the players seem happy, the board is staying out of the way and Dave has everyone onside. But things can change quickly in Zimbabwe as we know.

Ultimately if Zimbabwe can enter the tournament with 3-4 batsman firing and have a fully fit pace artillery fresh and ready to go, I think they’re in better shape to qualify than last time. Remembering again Zimbabwe went into the last qualifiers after winning just 2 of their 9 lead up ODIs.

Depending on the format/draw, South Africa and Zimbabwe will qualify.

Irrelevant post here but...I think a 10 team WC in 2019 was appropriate. Even then Afghanistan and West Indies were pretty hopeless. But there are a lot of quality ODI sides around now. A 12 or 14 team world cup is needed. Thankfully the 2027 WC and onwards will be 14 teams. 2011 and 2015 had some pretty good games.

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Back on topic. Assuming its the teams from my OP that are in the WC Qualifier...my early bet - subject to change of course - is on South Africa and Sri Lanka qualifying. Hopefully we will see some crazy upsets this tournament. Would love to see USA and one of Netherlands or Ireland bloody some noses. Would be very interesting to see the fall out if an Asian giant like Sri Lanka fails to qualify.

Good thread Kriterion.

South Africa will qualify directly, I'm quite sure about this they need 3 wins out of 5 to get past WI and two of those games are against the Dutch (unless of course RSA mess it up against the Dutch yet again or one of those games gets washed out) .

From the other contenders, watch out for Canada as well, they might as well leap frog USA or UAE to make it to the qualifiers.

In any case these qualifiers will be as exciting and as competitive as the WC itself imo.

Looks like India's ODI batting is starting to click. They've gone past 370 in their last 2 innings now (vs Bangladesh and Sri Lanka).

That's mainly because of flat batting tracks and dropped catches.

Looking at how poor SL have been and the West Indies, I think as long as South Africa somehow manage to qualify directly for the World Cup, there is a good chance both SL and WI might miss out to two of Zim/Ire/Net.

sam_ahm wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 15, 2023 10:40 am

Looking at how poor SL have been and the West Indies, I think as long as South Africa somehow manage to qualify directly for the World Cup, there is a good chance both SL and WI might miss out to two of Zim/Ire/Net.

Anything is possible. My money is on SA and SL to qualify, and if SA are not in the tournament then SL and WI just due to the fact that the major sides will use their big match temperament to win in the clutch. if SA get into a knock situation, all bets are off, however