The timetable for the Cricket World Cup League 2 has been announced by the International Cricket Council. The seven teams that will take part in League 2 are Nepal, Oman, Namibia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), UAE, Scotland and the USA. The teams will play 126 ODIs across 21 tri-series events.
Scotland, UAE and Nepal qualified through the recent World Cup Qualifier held in Zimbabwe. The World Cricket League Division 2 took place at Windhoek through which Oman, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and the USA qualified by finishing in the top four. The Netherlands won the final World Cricket League Championship and will contest with the 12 full member nations in the CWC Super League that starts next year.
More about the event
The teams will play 36 ODIs each – 12 home matches, 12 matches on neutral ground and 12 ‘away’ matches. From 14th to 21st August, Oman, PNG and Scotland will play four ODIs each at Mannofield Park in Aberdeen which will determine their position in the League 2 table.
Here are some key aspects worth noting-
- The main aim is to qualify for the Global World Cup Qualifier and then for the 2023 World Cup.
- After the completion of 21 tri-series events, the position of the top 3 teams will be confirmed at the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2022.
- The bottom 4 teams along with the winners of Challenge League A and B will compete in the Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-Off 2022.
- From the 6 teams competing in the Play-Off, the top 2 teams will progress to the Global Qualifier.
Mannofield Park Weather
After the conclusion of the hot summer, the weather forecast at Aberdeen is windy and cold with frequent showers and disruptions in store. Unlike Grange in Edinburgh, Mannofield is not a very batting-friendly ground in Scotland. Achieving a score above 250 is quite an exception at Aberdeen rather than the norm. The pitch is however friendly to pace bowlers who generally do well and batting probably gets easier in the afternoon provided the weather stays calm clear and dry which seems highly unlikely this week.
Teams & Players
The teams, along with their players who will play in Series 1 are given below:
PNG: Assad Vala (c), Charles Amini (vc), Simon Atai, Sese Bau, Gaudi Toka, Kiplin Doriga (wk), Riley Hekure, Hiri, Nosaina Pokana, Damien Ravu, Lega Siaka, Chad Soper, Tony Ura, Norman Vanua
Oman: Zeeshan Maqsood (c), Jatinder Singh (vc), Khawar Ali, Fayyaz Butt, Sandeep Goud, Aqib Ilyas, Aamir Kaleem, Kaleemullah, Bilal Khan, Suraj Kumar (wk), Ajay Lalcheta, Mohammad Nadeem, Khurram Nawaz, Jay Odedra
Scotland:Kyle Coetzer (c), Richie Berrington, Matthew Cross (wk), Alasdair Evans, Michael Leask, Calum MacLeod, Gavin Main, Mark Watt, George Munsey, Adrian Neill, Safyaan Sharif, Tom Sole, Hamza Tahir, Craig Wallace (wk)
Series 1 Schedule
Wednesday 14 August – Oman v PNG
10 am GMT, Mannofield Park, Aberdeen
Thursday 15 August – Scotland v Oman
10 am GMT, Mannofield Park, Aberdeen
Saturday 17 August – Scotland v PNG
10 am GMT, Mannofield Park, Aberdeen
Sunday 18 August – Scotland v Oman
10 am GMT, Mannofield Park, Aberdeen
Tuesday 20 August – Scotland v PNG
10 am GMT, Mannofield Park, Aberdeen
Wednesday 21 August – Oman v PNG
10 am GMT, Mannofield Park, Aberdeen
Series 2-21 Schedule & Teams
The Schedule and Teams playing for Series 2 to Series 21 is as follows:
Series 2 – September 2019 – United States, Papua New Guinea, Namibia
Series 3 – December 2019 – United Arab Emirates, Scotland, United States
Series 4 – January 2020 – Oman, Namibia, United Arab Emirates
Series 5 – February 2020 – Nepal, United States, Oman
Series 6 – March 2020 – United States, Scotland, United Arab Emirates
Series 7 – April 2020 – Namibia, Nepal, Scotland
Series 8 – June 2020 – Papua New Guinea, United Arab Emirates, Nepal
Series 9 – June 2020 – Scotland, Nepal, Namibia
Series 10 – September 2020 – Namibia, Papua New Guinea, United States
Series 11 – December 2020 – United Arab Emirates, Namibia, Oman
Series 12 – January 2021 – Oman, United States, Nepal
Series 13 – February 2021 – Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Papua New Guinea
Series 14 – April 2021 – Papua New Guinea, Oman, Scotland
Series 15 – June 2021 – Scotland, United Arab Emirates, United States
Series 16 – August 2021 – United States, Nepal, Oman
Series 17 – August 2021 – Namibia, Oman, United Arab Emirates
Series 18 – September 2021 – Papua New Guinea, United States, Namibia
Series 19 – November 2021 – Nepal, Namibia, Scotland
Series 20 – January 2022 – Oman, Scotland, Papua New Guinea
Series 21 – January 2022 – United Arab Emirates, Papua New Guinea, Nepal
It promises to be an exciting season of cricket for all these teams who are striving to break into the frontiers of mainstream global cricket. In fact, the International Cricket Council (ICC) should definitely think about promoting cricket more in these countries in order to pursue the next level of growth and expansion for the game.