Multi Tier Test System and how it fits in FTP

Over years there have been so many talks about giving Test Status to Bangladesh how it was a mistake. Many still believe they can and will improve. Then came in Ireland and Afghanistan. Ireland specifically with their performance have lead many to believe and push that they deserve Test Status. These teams have shown improvement and people follow cricket in their nations. Hence rightfully they should be given a chance to play the highest level and keep their players motivated. It would be good in long term to keep adding test teams for growth of cricket.

However then there is the issue of the Big 3-BCCI, CA and ECB who want to play more series amongst themselves and some against SL, Pak and SA. They will reluctantly be ready to host NZ or WI but hosting BD or Zim is a big no no. Now to add to that if you add to that another Test Nation and then ask them to take out time in FTP to play Ireland or Afghanistan instead of the top 3 which  would get them 10% of sponsorship money compared to playing Aus or Ind, why would they be willing to do that. For them additional Test nations is nation is burden on their resources.


I have always wonder what would be the right approach. The problem with present cricket structure is it is like a Communist System, creating different levels and assuming everything in level is equal. Unfortunately the sources of income come from a capitalistic system and ICC should realize that. In that light of that this what I have thought

What should be the Structure?
It should be a multi tier structure with promotion and relegation amongst these structure

Tier 1:- Aus, NZ, Eng, Zim, Ind, Pak, SL, BD, SA & WI
Tier 2:- Afg, Ken, Can, Neth, Scot, Nam, PNG, Ire, UAE & HK
IC Cup:- Ugan, Ber, Oman, Italy, USA, Den, Nep & Tanz

*those marked in red do not have a domestic tournament with dedicated players

 There should be a cycle of 4 years in which as part of FTP each nation in a Tier plays all other nations for atleast 3 Tests. ODI is the wish of nations to play or not but generally played along with Tests. If a country in Tier 1 wants to play a test against Tier 2 that is also allowed and counted as tests (Assuming say Eng goes into Tier 2 but still Ashes will be played). We are not dictating any one to play only a set of nation rather as a welfare state merely asking them to follow certain guidelines for the team in lower strata.

The IC Cup runs in the way it has been running i.e. a pool with 4 days FC matches happening over a time. Only difference it presently it happens in a single cycle for 2 years and now it would be 2 cycles over 4 years

At end of each cycle
Tier 1:-
Top 4 teams qualify for the Test Championship and winner is declared the Test Champion like World Cup champion
The Bottom 2 are relegated to Tier 2.
This keeps the excitement and teams not performing suffer and get relegated

Tier 2:-
Top 2 qualify for Tier 1
Bottom 2 relegated to IC Cup Div and loose test status for 4 years

IC Cup
The top 2 get Test Status and are promoted to Tier 2
The bottom 4 are relegated back to WCL and will have to qualify again

How will it fit in the FTP?
Getting the data from previous tours the time required for various forms of cricket in a tour are

Test:- 8 Days
ODI:- 4 Days
T20:- 2 Days
FC:- 6 Days
List A:- 3 Days

So if in 4 year cycle India has to have 9 tours to all test Tier 1 nations. Besides this India would like to have extra tour against Aus, SA, Eng, SL & Pak over these 4 years to have income stream and tours popular at home. This is beyond the requirement of FTP.


1.)The general Tour of India lets  Aus, Eng & SA typically is 4 Tests, 5 ODI, 3 T20, 1 FC and 1 List A

The tour would take :- 4x8+5X4+3X2+1X6+1X3= 67 Days

In a FTP there are 3 such tours and additional 3 Tours hence 67X6= 402 Days

2.)A tour against rest i.e NZ, Pak,SL, WI would be 3 Tests, 5 ODI, 2 T20, 1 FC and 1 List AThe tour would take:- 3X8+5X4+2X2+1X6+1X3= 57 Days
In a FTP there would be 4 tours with additional 2=1 Tour hence 57X5= 285 Days

3.)The tours for BD and Ire would be smaller with 3 Tests, 3 ODI, 1 T20, 1 FC and 1 List A (I have my doubts for List A but to be on the safer side lets include and move ahead)
The tour length here would be:- 3X8+3X4+1X2+1X6+1X3= 47 Days
The FTP will have just 2 tours making it 47X2= 92 Days

4.)Then India has to play IPL every year. Hence its schedule it needs to have a IPL Window of 50 Days
IPL Window=50X4=200 Days 

Like India have IPL window for themselves, Aus have it for Big Bash and so on. This is to give countries opportunities to earn from Domestic tournament which I believe would be a important source of income in future

5.)Then every year India would give a window for its international players for participating in  T20 tournament of other country as their players participate in for IPL. Remember these windows are not official ICC recognized but mere accommodation amongst boards and have to be considered.
Allowance for Other T20 Tournaments:- 20X4=80 Days
 However as there would be a T20 tournament in every country, accommodating with them would be in form of free days to players or holding a Test Series at that time and T20 specialist are free to go. 

6.)World Cup Window=60X1=60 Days
   

7.)World T20 Window= 20X2= 40 Days

8.)ICC Champion Trophy Window= 20X1= 20 Days

9.)Test Championship Window= 45X1= 45 Days

10.)Champions League Window:- 20X4= 80 Days  

11.)Rest:- 30X4= 120 Days

Hence a Total of 402+285+92+200+80+60+40+20+45+80+120=1424 Days, which is 356 days in a year leaving 9 days for any other activities 

In this schedule I have accommodated everything, 1 month rest to players in a year, window for IPL and other T20 leagues including Champions League and the favorite tours of the big 5 amongst themselves and compulsory tours to the other test nations test nations.

For the players perspective he gets 30 days rest, also players can be rested in some tours i.e when India tours WI, BD, Ire or NZ they can be rested. This has been built from the most busiest of schedules and when I analyzed  teams typically had the days cut in ODI series by playing triangular series or not playing T20. It is the test tours that are compulsory

How are ranking calculated for relegation?
When the cycle starts each team is supposed to play against all other 9 teams for at least 3 tests. There would be points given to teams based on their performance against that team a maximum of 20 points. That makes a max of 180 teams. If in 4 years they played 2 test series of 5 Test Series, then the points will be based on total of 10 tests.
The 20 points of Aus against Eng may be decided on 10 tests and against BD based on 3 Tests. How the points are to be given, a system can be worked out by ICC, which can be similar to what ICC uses in IC Cup

• Win – 14 points
• Draw if more than 10 hours of play lost – 7 points (otherwise 3 points)
• First Innings leader – 6 points (independent of final result)
• Abandoned without a ball played – 10 point

 So if in a Test Series between Aus and Eng, Aus won 3-2 and Aus got 54 Pts and Eng got 46 Pts and in second series Eng won 2-1 with 2 Drawn Test with Eng got 49 Pts and Aus got 38 Pts. Hence in total 92 Pts for Aus and Eng get 95 Pts. The 20 Pts would be split as Aus:- 9.84 and Eng 10.16. Hence in such a way each bi lateral series will have the points split and an overall table would be there.

This would make the whole Test Series besides really excitement. Think it is the series between Pak and BD and Pak want to win all the 3 matches taking first innings lead to come in Top 4 and qualify for Test Championship while BD require to draw one Test or Take an innings lead to be get out of bottom 2 and avoid relegation. Imagine the amount of excitement that will be there. It will make now the dead rubber 3-0 or 2-0 result series also interesting. Results will surely matter a lot.


What would be the implication of relegation and Promotion?
The present voting structure of ICC gives the absolute right to Test Nations. Bad performances are not punished. Also just being a test nation though not having a visible difference in level over an Associate (BD and Ire) gives an undue advantage like direct WC qualification and extra funding which is really unfair.
Being in Tier 1 should mean that each member would have 4 votes in the ICC, while in Tier 2 would mean that being reduced to 2 votes and IC Cup (Tier 3) will have 1 vote each. Hence from present 10 voting member 10 votes it would change to 28 voting members and  68 votes.

Presently  approximately over 4 years cycle ICC gives 20 M$ each to 10 Test nations, 2 M$ each to 6 ODI status nations and 1M$ each to the 4 HPP nations. So that is a total of 216 M$.
This amount is given to Test Nations to support their first class system, while to ODI status & HPP nations to support them for giving contracts to national team and developing talent.
The Test nations have got additional sources of money for hosting the teams for ODI and test series. Hence they have great means to support the FC structure.

In this system we should divide the funding in same ratio as the votes, so help the Tier 2 teams develop a FC structure also. Now the question arises how would we compensate the loss of funding to teams like Zim, BD or NZ which greatly depend on it. Answer is simple, instead of host taking it all money in a series and visitors just getting a participating fee, we go for a 80:20 divide. Hence when NZ hosts Aus or Eng they get large amounts in hosting, but they also get a huge chunk while they are visiting India. This would encourage teams like Ind, Aus to tour NZ, BD or WI rather than host them, which is great benefit and source of income. Since all the 9 teams would be playing there is a definite source of income through out the year. Also as every Test series has a reason points associated to it, the interest of people would be much higher and hence sponsorships are bound to increase. This way we ensure to compensate the teams. Now if they do not perform and go into Tier 2 (Say BD) then it is based on their performance.
The funding divide if we assume same amount of money is available then Tier 1 team gets 12.7 M$ (easily compensated with the FTP tours), Tier 2 gets 6.4 M$ (Good enough money to start and support a FC) and the IC Cup teams get 3.2 M$ (They can move to contracted players)

Over time if a team is relegated from Test to non Test (IC Cup) and it would have already started a FC based on funding, Then it would have a sudden loss in funding. However ICC will still keep supporting it for next cycle also with same funding level as a functioning FC should not be dismantled.  However even then if that team after 4 years is not able to reach Tier 2, then it will loose the funding. It would be believed during that time the team with that funding (As has an advantage over others in IC Cup as it has double funding and a Working FC structure) should be able to get back Test Status and also should have developed alternate funding sources.

Will the new voting structure affect the present political balance?
The present voting structure is divided on these lines

Asian Block (Ind, Pak, SL, BD):- 4/10=40%
White Block (Aus, NZ, Eng):- 3/10=30%
African Block (SA, Zim):- 2/10=20%
American Block (WI):- 1/10=10%

The proposed structure would make it as follows
Asian Block(Ind, Pak, Sl, BD, Afg, UAE, HK, Oman & Nep):- 24/68=35.3%
White Block (Aus, NZ, Eng, Ire, Neth, Scot, PNG, Italy & Den):- 22/68=32.3%
African Block(SA, Zim, Ken, Nam, Tan & Ugan):- 14/68=20.6%
American Block(WI, Can, Ber & USA):- 8/68=11.8%

Earlier the major block against expansion was the White block. To pass a resolution the Non White block needed 2/3rd votes i.e. 7 votes the exact no they had. Now to pass the resolution 2/3rd vote = 46 votes again what non white block has. Hence overall the power balance is same
But the Asian block and India would have less direct control and would require to take along much higher no of boards along. Also it would ensure that some colonial type decisions like 10 nation WC are not passed easily. However the Big 3 would need just 11 more votes (or 3 more Tier 1 nations) to block a decision which can be seen as too favorable and before time for lower strata of teams (Eg if a resolution is brought in for equal division of ICC money between all)

Hence it will be a more inclusive board and would help to take decision in general good for the world and not just 10 nations.

How would the qualification of World Cup Happen?
Suppose the World Cup is in 2019. This cycle would start for 2013 to 2017. In 2017 We also would have World Test Championship. Hence we would have a WCL cycle running from 2009 to 2013 and the Top 4 teams would qualify for IC Cup based on WCQ something similar to what happens now for WC qualification.
From 2013 to 2017 we have the 2 Tier and IC Cup running. After that all the teams would be ranked i.e
Tier 1
1 to 4 from World Test Championship
5 to 8 based in Tier 1 Ranking
9 & 10 Teams promoted from Tier 2
Tier 2
11 & 12 Teams relegated to Tier 2
13 to 18 based in Ranking in Tier 2
19 & 20 Promoted to Tier 2
Non Test
21& 22 Relegated from Tier 2
23 to 24 Based on IC Cup ranking
24 to 28 Relegated back to WCL

We should have a 16 nation World Cup
Top 12 Ranked teams directly qualify
WCQ for 8 teams from Rank 13 to 20 and Top 4 qualify

The teams in Tier 2 will have a very relaxed schedule as they will have funds to play short series and very rarely a double series with any team. Hence Tier 2 will be scheduled to finished 20 days before Tier 1 and this would be utilized as time for WCQ.

For World T20 and Champions Trophy would be direct qualification based on ranking.


So in the End
The message is pretty clear. For common man every test series will have a meaning. The qualification for World Cup would be based on a merit. Lets built a system of meritocracy and lets hope and push towards it
21 & 22.

ICC decision is so pathetic

Monday afternoon I read a news on cricinfo:- ICC to consider a 12 team 2015 World Cup. I was so happy to read it. I was really positive it will happen. Associate will be given a chance. I was also hopeful that even if ICC goes for a 10 nation World Cup, they will mean a World Cup and give a chance to include associates.
And then I was travelling in a bus. On my bb I can just receive mails and no net. I got an update:- ICC to have 10 nations 2015 WC. Ireland to miss the tournament. I thought CNN IBN is reporting the old news. I was so sure that it will not happen. Next day morning I reach my house. Put channel no 302 on Airtel DTH (CNN IBN). Again could see the same news. Again though the same.
Then hell broke loose. Opened my laptop. Opened my favourite cricket site:- cricket europe and see the shocking news. It was true. The happiness of India winning the WC lost in just 2 days. Yes 2 days. It was so sad and shocking for me.

I blame this whole thing on Mr Sharad Pawar. As I know selfish are people from his state and he is a reflection of that, he brought that same thing into ICC. Sports is not business alone. True it needs money but it just does not need money alone. I hope as I read at many places, a case in arbitration of sports can have ICC in trouble and I hope so that happens. I hope over time it becomes a 12 nations World Cup. If not I am not watching this world cup.

We need to have regional tournaments.

ICC recently went ahead with proposals to reduce 2015 WC to 10 nations. While all sports are for increasing the no of teams, in cricket we still have our colonial mindset and went the opposite way. As a sop to the new nations ICC offered them a 16 nation World T-20 and that will be held twice before 2015 WC in 2012 in SL and 2014 in BD. If ICC is so serious for a 10 nation CWC then what about the exposure to Associate nations.

To ensure that we give right exposure to the lesser nations we should go ahead with regional tournaments to be held once in 4 years replacing Champions Trophy. We know Champions trophy brings in revenue. To ensure that these regional tournaments also bring in revenue we should have them in the shortest format i.e T20. Asia will surely give revenue's to ICC via ACC while the others may take some time. The closest to earning a revenue would be ECC. These tournaments would go ahead as per present ranking like this

ASIA
Group A:-Ind, BD, Afg, HK
Group B:-SL, Pak, Nep,UAE
Top 2 from each group go into semi finals and then finals

AFRICA
League:-SA, Zim, Ken, Nam, Ugan
Top 2 go into finals

EUROPE
League:-Eng, Ire,Scot, Neth, Wales & Italy. Wales though a part of eng would field a seperate team here
Top 2 reach the finals. This tournament can be played in Ireland or Netherlands

AMERICAS
League:-WI, Can, USA & Bermuda
Top 2 reach the finals

EAP
League:-Aus, NZ & PNG
Top 2 in Final

The tournament should go ahead to create compact scheduling. On a weekday 2 matches and weekend 3 matches should be played. The longest of this tournament would be the Asia Cup. Let us show an sample schedule of it

Day 1 (Sat):-
1 PM:- BD V Afg
5 PM:-SL V Pak
9 PM:-Ind V HK

Day 2 (Sun)
1 PM:- Nep V UAE
5 PM:-SL V Nep
9 PM:- Ind V Afg

Day 3 (Mon)
5 PM:- BD V HK
9 PM:- Pak V UAE

Day 4 (Tue)
5 PM:- Afg V HK
9 PM:- Ind V BD

Day 5 (Wed)
5 PM:- SL V UAE
9 PM:- Pak V Nep

Day 6 (Thrus)
Break /Reserve day

Day 7 (Fri)
5 PM:- SF 1
9 PM:- SF 2

Day 8 (Sat)
9 PM:- Final

And this is the longest of all schedule. The shortest ones can be finished in 5 days. I hope ICC goes ahead and gives exposure to the lesser teams

Chapter 1:- Africa Div 3 (T20) Chanpionship, 2011, World Twenty20 Qualifier

The path to 2012 World Twenty20 started its first leg with 7 nations of Africa fighting it out in hope of reach the ultimate pinnacle. The 7 Nations played in WCL Africa Div 3. These nations were:- Mali, Gambia, Cameroon, Lesotho, Morocco, Seychelles & Rwanda. The winner of this tournament would qualify for Africa Div 2

Gambia have a cricketing culture with they being former member of the West African team and a former British colony.
Rwanda has been going really strong on cricket development with their schools regularly taking part in Uganda. This has lead to decent levels of development
Seychelles is a former British Colony with a cricket legacy. They regularly played a triangular tournament with Maldives & Mauritius until the 1990's. They were the 105th member(Latest) member of ICC and this was their first tournament
Morocco:- They are also new to the cricketing spectrum. They however had the credit of hosting ODI at the stadium between South Africa, Pakistan & Sri Lanka
Lesotho are completely surrounded by South Africa and hence does not leave any doubt where cricket comes from
Mali and Cameroon are teams on which I don't have much information

The teams were divided into 2 groups
GROUP A:- Rwanda, Lesotho & Cameroon
GROUP B:- Seychelles, Morocco, Gambia & Mali

The tournament favorites Rwanda virtually had no competition in their group. They simply thrashed both the teams and qualified for finals. Cricket influence of South Africa helped them defeat Cameroon and come second

Group A
Team P W L T/NR Pts
Rwanda 2 2 0 0 4
Lesotho 2 1 1 0 2
Cameroon 2 0 2 0 0

In other group the teams were new to each other but West African experience had made them the favorites. However it was the newcomer Seychelles that rocked the world and won all their matches. Morocco with good infrastructure managed to come second while Gambia third, not making much use of their past experiences. Mali came 4th in group and hence last overall in tournament as they would not play any playoff.

Group B
Team P W L T/NR Pts
Seychelles 3 3 0 0 6
Morocco 3 2 1 0 4
Gambia 3 1 2 0 2
Mali 3 0 3 0 0


The final match was between Seychelles and Rwanda. The winner would go into the Div 2 and rest would have to play it out next time after 2 years. However Rwanda kept to their tag and won the tournament qualifying for Africa Div 2.

FINAL STANDING
1. Rwanda (Qualify for Africa Div 2)
2. Seychelles
3. Lesotho
4. Morocco
5. Gambia
6. Cameroon
7. Mali

Journey to 2012 ICC World Twenty20

Cricket new rising star will be held in Sri Lanka in 2012. The process of qualification of the same has already started. We would be following the qualification process very closely here. First to start with we will have a complete understanding of the process.

What is Twenty20?
Twenty20 is the latest format developed in cricket. It consists of both team batting or balling for 20 overs. The match lasts for 3.5 hours much comparable to other sports like Baseball, Football etc.
It involves explosive form of cricket with much higher ratio of 4's and 6's and is entertaining for the crowds. ICC (International Cricket Council) has made it the guiding vehicle to introduce cricket to new markets.

How many teams will be playing World Twenty20 and what will be the format?
16 teams will be playing in the world cup. The format has not yet been decided. Most likely it will be 4 pools of 4 teams each. Then top 2 teams qualify to Super 8's with again 2 groups of 4. Then we will have a Semi Final and a Final.
Whenever the exact format comes I will definitely update the same

How many similar world cup have happened and who are the winners?
This would be the 4th World Cup. The previous 3 have been as follows
2007, South Africa:- India defeated arch rivals Pakistan to win the first World Cup
2009, England:- Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka
2010, West Indies:- England defeated arch rivals Australia to lift their first ICC trophy

What is the qualification process?
To understand the qualification process we need to understand the structure of ICC.

ICC has got 3 level of membership.
Test Nations:- These are the highest level of members who are officially allowed to play Test Cricket (5day matches). These nations only have voting rights. Presently there are 10 Test Nations:- Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies (A combination of 20 Caribbean nations) & Zimbabwe
Associates:- These are countries where cricket is firmly established, but yet not at a level to play Test Cricket. In simple words, cricket is one of the major say 15 games with a proper structure to manage it. There are 34 Associate Members.
Affiliates:-These are nations where cricket is in developing stage and has got regulation to play it as per ICC regulations. There are 60 Affiliate Members.

ICC manages Associate and Affiliate through 5 regions. These 5 regions are:-Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas & East Asia Pacific

The Top Associate and Affiliate from these regions form a part of the World Cricket League. There are 8 Divisions of World Cricket League. Division 1 to 7 have 6 teams each. Division 8 has 8 teams. The rest of the nations play in the Regional Division i.e WCL Africa or WCL Europe etc.

The World Cricket League runs over a period of 2 years. It is in 50 Over format. Since a world cup (50 Over) is after 4 years, hence for a 50 Over WC, 2 cycle of WCL happen.
From previous Division 8, the top 2 teams would have qualified for Div 7. The 3rd stays in Div 8. From previous Div 7 the bottom 2 are relegated to Div 8. Hence 5 slots left. These slots are filled by 1 team from each region. At the end, again top 2 teams go to Div 7, 3rd stays and rest 5 go back into regional tournaments.
For Div 3 to Div 7, there are 6 teams. Top 2 qualify to higher Div. Middle 2 stay and bottom 2 are relegated to lower Division.
In Division 2, the Top 4 qualify for 50 Over WC Qualifer. Bottom 2 are relegated to Div 3. This Div happens once in 4 years. The 4 teams in Div 2 are the teams rank 7 to 10 from 50 Over WCQ and 2 more come from Div 3
Division 1 are teams ranked 1 to 6 in WCQ. Like Div 2 it also happens once in 4 years. All teams in Div 1 get ODi status i.e there 50 overs and 20 overs matches are recogonized in official records
Finally happens the World Cup Qualifers. It has got 12 Teams. 6 teams from Div 1, Top from Div 2 and Top 2 from Div 3 form a part. Based on ranking Top 6 again go into Div 1, 7 to 10 in Div 2 and 11 & 12 in Div 3.
Hence in Div 3 for the first cycle in WC qualification top 2 teams reach the Div 2. Then Div 2 is played. Top 4 into WCQ and bottom 2 back to Div 3. In the next cycle the top 2 teams go into WCQ directly

Hence this was the complete ICC structure.

Coming back to the qualification structure for 2012 World Twenty20.
As expected the Test Teams directly qualify. Hence 10 slots gone. Left are 6.

For these 6 slots there will be a 20-20 WC Qualifier. It will also consist of 16 teams. The 16 teams will be decided as follows:- 6 teams of Div 1 (Because they have official ODI and 20-20 status). Rest 10 slots will be filled as follows Region (WCQ Slots):- Asia (3), Europe(2), Africa(2), Americas (2) and EAP(1). Hence from 16 teams 6 will go into World Cup

The 6 teams of Division 1 are Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands & Scotland

Now next questions comes into mind, how will regional teams be decided
The regional tournaments of 5 regions have all been scheduled. These are as follows

Europe
Europe Div 3 (Slovenia):-Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey
Europe Div 2 (Belgium):-Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Hellas, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, winner of ICC Europe Division 3
Europe Div 1(Jersey/Guernsey):- Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Israel, Italy, Jersey, Norway, Spain, Winner from ICC Europe Division 2

Africa
Africa Div 3 (Ghana):- Cameroon, Gambia, Lesotho, Mali, Morocco, Rwanda, Seychelles
Africa Div 2 (South Africa):- Zambia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Nigeria, Botswana, winner from ICC Africa Division 3
Africa Div 1 (Kenya) also known as African Premier League:- Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, South Africa Emerging, Zimbabwe Emerging, Winner from ICC Africa Division 2

Kenya, are already in qualifiers. South Africa and Zimbabwe are Test Nations.Even if they win the Divisions tournaments the next highest ranked teams will qualify.

Asia
ACC (Asia Cricket Council) makes a ranking of Asian teams based on the performance in Senior, U-19 and U-15 tournaments. The teams which perform good across all age groups will get higher ranks. This is to encourage overall development of cricket starting right from children. Based on these ranking the top 10 teams have been given a chance to play for qualifiers out of 18 teams in Asia

ACC T20 (Nepal):- Afghanistan, Nepal, UAE, Oman, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bhutan, Kuwait, Maldives, Saudi Arabia

Afghanistan are part of WCL Div 1. If they come in top 3, then the next highest rank would qualify.

Americas
Americas Div 3 (Costa Rica):- Belize, Chile, Peru, Mexico,Costa Rica, Falkland Islands
Americas Div 2 (Suriname):- Bahamas, Brazil, Panama, Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands, Winner of America Division 3
Americas Div 1 (TBC):- Argentina, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, USA, Winner from ICC Americas Division 2

Canada are part of WCL Div 1. If they come in top 2, then the next highest rank would qualify.

East Asia Pacific
EAP Div 2 (Samoa):- Indonesia, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Philippines, South Korea
EAP Div 1 (Papua New Guinea):- PNG, Fiji, Japan, Vanuatu, Winner from ICC EAP Division 2

The race has already begun with Africa Div 3 already over and Americas Div 3 going on as I type this blog. I would be updating each and every division. Stay here to be tuned to all the action. This is truly going like Football qualification with the best 16 making, only difference is test teams have a direct entry which they surely deserve. Keep tuned for all the action. I am excited.