World Cricket League
 Official logo | |
| Administrator | International Cricket Council |
|---|---|
| Format | One-Day International List A |
| First edition | 2007 |
| Latest edition | 2019 |
| Tournament format | League system |
| Number of teams | 93 nations |
| Most runs |  Peter Gough (2006) |
| Most wickets |  Basanta Regmi (118) |
| Website | ICC World Cricket League |
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| Note: Defunct competitions are listed in italics. |
The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of the ICC were eligible to compete in the league system, which featured a promotion and relegation structure between divisions. The league system had two main aims: to provide a qualification system for the Cricket World Cup that could be accessed by all Associate Members and as an opportunity for these sides to play international one-day matches against teams of similar standards.
The league began in 2007, where teams were allocated into divisions based on their performance in the qualification tournaments for the 2007 World Cup; the six initial teams in Division One were the teams that had qualified for the 2007 World Cup. At this stage, there were only five divisions. The WCL expanded to eight divisions at one point.
The WCL was a pathway to the Cricket World Cup until 2019. Following the conclusion of the 2019 Division Two tournament, the WCL was replaced by the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 and the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League. The final rankings from the WCL were used to place teams into the two new leagues.[1][2]
Structure
[edit]The initial league began in 2007 with seven tournaments over five global divisions, based upon previous world rankings.[3][4] This was expanded into eight separate divisions by 2010. In the first cycle, the number of teams in each tournament varied from six to twelve. With the advent of the second cycle, the number of teams was regularised to six for each tournament, with the exception of the lowest division, Division 8, in which eight teams played. As from 2015, the number of divisions was again reduced to just five.
When most of the divisions are played, two teams will be promoted, two relegated and two remain for the next instalment (normally two years later). At the end of each cycle, a World Cup Qualifier is played. In 2018, this featured the four lowest teams of those holding 'Full' (senior) status, together with six 'Associate' nations – namely the four who were still in Division One, plus the top two from Division Two. The two last-placed teams in that World Cup Qualifier lost their ODI status and were relegated into Division Two.
Regional tournaments, which act as qualifiers for the lowest division of the World League, are administered by the five development regions of the International Cricket Council: Africa, Americas, Asia, East Asia-Pacific, and Europe.[5][3]
Results
[edit]Summary
[edit]| Cycle | Pre-qualification for | Divisions | World Cup qualification tournament(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007–09[6] | 2011 Cricket World Cup | 5 | 2009 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
| 2009–14[7] | 2015 Cricket World Cup | 8 | 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship, 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
| 2012–18[citation needed] | 2019 Cricket World Cup | 8 | 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
| 2017–19[citation needed] | League 2, Challenge League → 2023 Cricket World Cup | 5 | 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
Division results
[edit]| Details | Host nation(s) | Final venue | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Result | Runner-up | |||
| 2007–09 ICC World Cricket League – Pathway to the 2011 Cricket World Cup | |||||
| 2007 Division Three |
 Australia |
Gardens Oval, Darwin |  Uganda241/8 (50 overs) | Uganda won by 91 runs scorecard |  Argentina150 all out (46.3 overs) |
| 2007 Division Two |
 Namibia |
Wanderers Cricket Ground, Windhoek | |||