T20 World Cup 2022: Nepal to play direct global qualifier

Kathmandu: Nepal will play global qualifer for the ICC T20 World Cup to be held in Australia in 2022.

According to the 2022 T20 World Cup roadmap released by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday, Nepal, Zimbabwe, UAE and Singapore will be able to play in the global selection. Based on being ahead in the T20 rankings, four teams including Nepal will be able to play in the global qualifiers.

A total of 16 teams will compete in the global qualifiers. Only the top four teams will make it to the World Cup. Australia has been directly selected as the host for the 2022 World Cup. Similarly, the top 11 teams in the 2021 T20 World Cup in India will also be directly selected in the 2022 T20 World Cup.

There will be global qualifiers for the remaining four places. The last four teams of the 2021 World Cup including Nepal, Zimbabwe, UAE and Singapore and eight teams from the regional qualifiers will play in the global qualifiers.

The ICC has unveiled a four-stage roadmap for the T20 World Cup to be held in October-November 2020.

Under the regional qualifiers, the same team from East Asia and Africa will be selected in the global qualifiers. Similarly, 2-2 teams from USA and Europe will reach the global qualifiers, while two teams from the Asian region will qualify and 1-1 teams from both the groups will reach the global qualifiers.

In the global qualifiers, 16 teams will be divided into two groups and the top 2-2 teams of the two groups will be selected for the T20 World Cup in Australia. Where 16 teams will compete for the T20 World Cup title.

A total of 225 Twenty20 internationals will be played in 13 months to reach the World Cup in Australia, according to the ICC. From which they will have the opportunity to jump in the T20 rankings. A total of 67 teams will compete in the regional qualifiers, with Hungary, Romania and Serbia playing in the T20 World Cup qualifiers for the first time, the ICC said.

Earlier, the World Cup was scheduled to be held in Australia in 2020 and 16 teams had already been decided for that. Similarly, in 2021, India was preparing to host another T20 World Cup.

But as international cricket has been affected for a long time due to the Corona epidemic, the teams selected for 2020 will now play the T20 World Cup in India in 2021.