Road to the 2023 World Cup

[cnerd123]

It's in 16 months, may as well get this started.

The 2023 WC will be played entirely in India during October/November, assuming no other COVID related disruptions/other pandemics/WW3. Disappointingly it will be just a 10 team affair, as the bigger Full Member boards look keep all that lucrative broadcast money in their own pockets.

The Top 7 teams from the ongoing ODI Super League will automatically qualify. Since India are hosts/run all of world cricket they qualify regardless of where they finish. There are 13 teams in the Super League, the 12 Full Members + Netherlands. As of posting the points table looks like this:


Source

w00t Bangladesh!

Unlike the WTC, the ODI Super League has a sensible tournament structure, as each team is required to play 3 ODIs against all the other teams. Wait, that's not right. No, actually each team only has to play against 8 of the other 12 nations, meaning they can completely ignore 4 of them. How is this decided? Politics, basically.

The five bottom ranked teams from ODI Super League will enter into the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, which is the ICC's way of saying 'look we're growing the game!'. This tournament is penciled in to be played in Zimbabwe from 18th June to 9th July 2023, fitting prep for for a WC in India. The Qualifying tournament will feature a total of 10 teams, with the 5 Associate members decided in classic ICC fashion:



The structure of this tournament is still TBC. All qualifying matches should have ODI status, but that's what they said for the Women's qualifier before changing their mind last minute in order to deny Thailand a spot. So expect 10 Full Member teams in the WC one way or another.

New Zealand have a lot of catching up to do with their ODI fixtures, while it seems like Zimbabwe and the Netherlands will be heading to the Qualifiers. Ireland, Sri Lanka, West Indies and South Africa could be battling it out to avoid joining them.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Love to grow the game

 

[cnerd123]

Looking forward to India's squad at the WC, and there are a lot of questions to be answered. Rohit is likely to captain, but there are plenty of spots for grabs. Have bolded those certain to be picked and italicized some outside choices:

Openers: Rohit, Lokesh, Dhawan, Shaw
Middle Order: Kohli, S. Iyer, SKY, Pandey, Nitish Rana
All Rounders: Jadeja, Hardik, Thakur, Washington, Hooda, V. Iyer,
Wicketkeepers: Pant, Samson, Kishan
Pacers: Bumrah, Shami, Siraj, Prasidh, Chahar, Bhuvi, Nataranjan
Spinners: Ashwin, Chahal, Axar, Kuldeep, K Gowtham, Bishnoi

Could use more lefties in the pace department and the batting lineup. Does Dhawan have another WC left in him? Do Ashwin and Bhuvi? Is it Bishnoi time?

 

[GIMH]

Thanks cnerd. That was a useful post.

 

[jayjay]

What a silly points system, it should be percentage like the WTC.

Anyway India wins in India. Yawn.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Anyway India wins in India. Yawn.

Home team doesn't always win at cricket. Pakistan just lost a Test series.

 

[ankitj]

Looking forward to India's squad at the WC, and there are a lot of questions to be answered. Rohit is likely to captain, but there are plenty of spots for grabs. Have bolded those certain to be picked and italicized some outside choices:

Openers: Rohit, Lokesh, Dhawan, Shaw
Middle Order: Kohli, S. Iyer, SKY, Pandey, Nitish Rana
All Rounders: Jadeja, Hardik, Thakur, Washington, Hooda, V. Iyer,
Wicketkeepers: Pant, Samson, Kishan
Pacers: Bumrah, Shami, Siraj, Prasidh, Chahar, Bhuvi, Nataranjan
Spinners: Ashwin, Chahal, Axar, Kuldeep, K Gowtham, Bishnoi

Could use more lefties in the pace department and the batting lineup. Does Dhawan have another WC left in him? Do Ashwin and Bhuvi? Is it Bishnoi time?

How is Bhuvi not confirmed but Shami is for WC squad?

 

[mr_mister]

God this has come around quick. Crazy to think when the last one happened covid wasnt a thing.

Feels like yesterday I was watching England get awarded the cup through technicalities

Life moves too fast nowadays

 

[mr_mister]

Also, I have a feeling a huge name may miss out on qualification. Afghanistan and Bangladesh look certain for automatic qualification which is ridiculous - and Ireland may sneak in through sheer weight of matches as well.

Meaning one of the big 8 misses out

Is there a cap on how many more fixtures Ireland get to play for example? Or can they just keep scheduling and hope NZ and co don't catch them. With points awarded for no results they should just be tactical and plan a bunch of UK matches in June

 

[cnerd123]

Is there a cap on how many more fixtures Ireland get to play for example? Or can they just keep scheduling and hope NZ and co don't catch them. With points awarded for no results they should just be tactical and plan a bunch of UK matches in June

Each team has to play 3 ODIs against 8 other nations on the list. Which 8 nations has already been pre-determined. Means a max of 24 games per team. 12 of these are home, 12 of these are away, again that split has already been decided.

Live Cricket Scores & News International Cricket Council

Official ICC Cricket website - live matches, scores, news, highlights, commentary, rankings, videos and fixtures from the International Cricket Council.

www.icc-cricket.com

How is Bhuvi not confirmed but Shami is for WC squad?

Injury prone + Indian selectors love to drop him for no good reason. Plus Shami's been really good lately.

 

[Flem274*]

Each team has to play 3 ODIs against 8 other nations on the list.

looking forward to nz not getting around to this and missing qualification.

4 odis

4

 

[GIMH]

IMO only posters whose teams sit in auto-qualification spaces should be allowed to post in this thread. Top ten at a push.

 

[mr_mister]

Each team has to play 3 ODIs against 8 other nations on the list. Which 8 nations has already been pre-determined. Means a max of 24 games per team. 12 of these are home, 12 of these are away, again that split has already been decided.

Live Cricket Scores & News International Cricket Council

Official ICC Cricket website - live matches, scores, news, highlights, commentary, rankings, videos and fixtures from the International Cricket Council.

www.icc-cricket.com

Injury prone + Indian selectors love to drop him for no good reason. Plus Shami's been really good lately.

Ah, so will probably just get the exact 10 teams as last time and this huge drawn out set of qualifying tournaments will be completely arbitrary

The 18 teams worthy of being in the discussion (so these 13 plus whichever 5 associates get fed to them in the qualifying tournament) should just form an 18 team world cup. Bigger is always better, look how good the rugby world cup is even though half the teams have no chance

You make 3 groups of 6 - top 2 make the quarter finals as well as the two best 3rd place sides. The tournament ends up being about the same length match wise and infinitely more exciting.

People will say there will be too many blowouts but who cares? Morgan destroying Afghanistan was box office last world cup. And it only takes one upset to create a magical moment that gets remembered forever. You need more exposure on the big stage to truly get more countries to care. At the end of the day it beats each world cup lineup being a rehash of last time

 

[jayjay]

Home team doesn't always win at cricket. Pakistan just lost a Test series.

I said INDIA, win IN INDIA...India are giants at home, won the 2011 WC at home quite easily (couple scares along the way). I can't see how its any different now with weaker Asian sides than back in 2011.

 

[Prince EWS]

Ah, so will probably just get the exact 10 teams as last time and this huge drawn out set of qualifying tournaments will be completely arbitrary

The 18 teams worthy of being in the discussion (so these 13 plus whichever 5 associates get fed to them in the qualifying tournament) should just form an 18 team world cup. Bigger is always better, look how good the rugby world cup is even though half the teams have no chance

You make 3 groups of 6 - top 2 make the quarter finals as well as the two best 3rd place sides. The tournament ends up being about the same length match wise and infinitely more exciting.

People will say there will be too many blowouts but who cares? Morgan destroying Afghanistan was box office last world cup. And it only takes one upset to create a magical moment that gets remembered forever. You need more exposure on the big stage to truly get more countries to care. At the end of the day it beats each world cup lineup being a rehash of last time

It will thankfully go back up to 14 teams in 2027.

 

[Moss]

looking forward to nz not getting around to this and missing qualification.

4 odis

4

Incredible. I guess this gets lost among all the discussion about NZ’s determination to make 2-test series the default setting, but now you realise those JAMODIs aren’t so JAM after all.

TBF this number is severely deflated by NZ’s having to drop out from last year’s Pakistan tour, and their insistence on scheduling summer ODIs against Australia which get canned for various reasons. But with 2 T20 world cups in the middle, this is simply the result of expediency (ie all those 5-series T20s) on NZCs part.

 

[cnerd123]

I'm sure everyone's see the news already, but SA have conceded their Super League points to Australia because they'd rather play a domestic T20 comp than 3 ODIs:

South Africa's ODI World Cup hopes hang by a thread as Australia series cancelled

The points from the three matches are set to be awarded to Australia after the visitors effectively conceded the series

www.espncricinfo.com

CSA forfeits Australia ODIs to secure 'long-term sustainability of the game' in South Africa

The reason to risk direct World Cup qualification is to launch its own franchise-based T20 league next year

www.espncricinfo.com

Explainer: What has CSA done, and how will it impact cricket's future?

What happens if South Africa fail to qualify for the World Cup? And what are the implications for the ODI format?

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[cnerd123]

Updated as of 12th July - which suggests BD's thumping of WI and SA's forfeits are not factored in yet.

w00t Bangladesh!

 

[cnerd123]

also for all the wrist-slitting the NZ fans love to do, they're the only unbeaten team in this Super League cycle so far.

They play 3 ODIs vs Australia in Cairns in September. Should be fun.

 

[mr_mister]

Ireland really could have used that win over NZ