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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
ASIA Cup champions, Sri Lanka have missed out on direct qualification for the upcoming 2023 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup and are set to participate in the qualifiers which will be hosted in Zimbabwe in June.
The reigning Asian champions’ hopes of directly booking their ticket to the World Cup went up in smoke after losing their three-match One Day International (ODI) series against New Zealand 2-0 after the second match of the series was abandoned due to rain hence only two matches taking place.
This marks the first time in 44 years that the Sri Lankan team will have to play qualifiers in order to earn their place in the World Cup.
Sri Lanka went into the final match needing nothing short of a win to keep their thin hopes of qualifying alive and also hoping that the other two nations vying for the remaining one slot slip up in their games as well. The two teams with some hope of snatching the spot are South Africa and Ireland.
The Asian nation, on 81 points, are sitting in position 10 in the Super League thus failing to overtake the West Indies who are eighth place with 88 points and have played all their matches.
Meanwhile, a series win for South Africa against the Netherlands will take them to 98 points, effectively securing position eight in the standings. They, however, face a threat from Ireland who have a series against Bangladesh (The Tigers) in May.
The series in May will take place in Chelmsford, England. This is due to better weather in England than in Ireland, leading to a better chance of full matches being played and producing results. For the Irish to have hopes of direct qualification, they need to whitewash The Tigers which will take them to 98 points, level with South Africa.
Both teams will have nine wins each, number of wins is the first tie-breaker thus since
having equal victories, net-run rate will come into play.
Zimbabwe hosted the previous qualifiers to the 2019 edition in England and were awarded the opportunity of hosting again this year. The tournament is scheduled for 18 June to 9 July at venues soon to be announced.
India, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, England and Afghanistan are the teams whose places at the World Cup are guaranteed. — @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter