The 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 is the first edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2, a cricket tournament which forms part of the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualification process. It is currently running from August 2019 to February 2023, with all matches played as One Day Internationals (ODIs). Each set of fixtures will take part as a tri-series.
Scotland, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates were joined by the top four teams from the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament. The first round of fixtures were played in Aberdeen, Scotland in August 2019.
The top three teams will advance to the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament, with the bottom four teams advancing to the 2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off.
In addition, the top ranked team in this CWC League 2 could be promoted to the next CWC Super League. Of the top ranked team in this League 2 and the 13th ranked team in 2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, whichever of these two teams is ranked higher in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier will take the 13th spot in the next Super League while the team ranked lower will play in the next League 2.
Either of the bottom two teams in this competition could be relegated to the next Cricket World Cup Challenge League. Of the bottom two teams, and the two champions of the 2019–2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge Leagues A and B, whichever two of these four teams are ranked higher in the Qualifier Play-off, will play in the next League 2, while the two teams ranked lower will play in the next Challenge League.
Teams
The top three teams in the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 will qualify for the World Cup Qualifier while the bottom four go to the Qualifier Play-off.
| Team | Mode of qualification |
|---|---|
 Nepal |
Prior ODI status |
 Scotland |
|
 United Arab Emirates |
|
 Namibia |
Promoted from 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two |
 Oman |
|
 Papua New Guinea |
|
 United States |
Fixtures
The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed the following schedule of fixtures. In December 2020, the ICC announced a revised schedule following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2022, the ICC issued a further update for rounds nine to fifteen, with those rounds scheduled to take place from March to August 2022. Cricket Namibia also announced details of three rounds scheduled to take place in the country in September and November 2022.
| Round | Date | Host team | 2nd team | 3rd team | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 2019 | Scotland |
Oman |
Papua New Guinea |
|
| 2 | September 2019 | United States |
Papua New Guinea |
Namibia |
|
| 3 | December 2019 | United Arab Emirates |
Scotland |
United States |
|
| 4 | January 2020 | Oman |
Namibia |
United Arab Emirates |
The final two matches were postponed to round 8 following the death of Qaboos bin Said. |
| 5 | February 2020 | Nepal |
United States |
Oman |
|
| 6 | September 2021 | Oman |
United States |
Nepal |
Originally scheduled for March 2021; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 7 | September 2021 | Oman |
Scotland |
Papua New Guinea |
|
| 8 | November 2021 | Namibia |
Oman |
United Arab Emirates |
Included the two matches postponed from round 4. However, only two matches were played before being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| N/A | February 2022 | Oman |
United Arab Emirates |
N/A | Arranged to make up for matches postponed during rounds four and eight. |
| 9 | March 2022 | United Arab Emirates |
Namibia |
Oman |
Originally scheduled for December 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Included one match postponed from round 4. |
| 10 | March 2022 | United Arab Emirates |
Papua New Guinea |
Nepal |
|
| 11 | April 2022 | Papua New Guinea |
Oman |
Scotland |
Originally scheduled for April 2021; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later moved from Papua New Guinea to the UAE. |
| 12 | May 2022 | United States |
Scotland |
United Arab Emirates |
Originally scheduled for April 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 13 | June 2022 | United States |
Nepal |
Oman |
|
| 14 | July 2022 | Scotland |
Nepal |
Namibia |
Originally scheduled for July 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 15 | August 2022 | Scotland |
United Arab Emirates |
United States |
|
| 16 | September 2022 | Namibia |
Papua New Guinea |
United States |
Originally scheduled for September 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 17 | November 2022 | Namibia |
Papua New Guinea |
United States |
Originally scheduled for May 2021 in PNG; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 18 | November 2022 | Namibia |
Nepal |
Scotland |
Originally scheduled for April 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| TBA | February 2022 | Nepal |
United Arab Emirates |
Papua New Guinea |
Originally scheduled for February 2021; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| TBA | September 2022 | Papua New Guinea |
United Arab Emirates |
Nepal |
Originally scheduled for June 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| TBA | February 2023 | Nepal |
Namibia |
Scotland |
On 13 March 2020, the sixth round of matches, scheduled to take place in Lauderhill, Florida in April 2020, were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions to the United States. On 24 March 2020, the ICC also confirmed that rounds seven and eight, scheduled to take place in Namibia and Papua New Guinea respectively, had also been postponed. The ninth round of fixtures, scheduled to take place in Scotland in July 2020, were postponed on 10 June 2020. The round 10 tournament, scheduled to take place in Namibia in September 2020, was postponed on 23 July 2020.
In February 2021, the ICC confirmed that rounds six, seven and eight of their updated schedule had also been postponed. Round six was scheduled to take place in Oman, with rounds seven and eight originally scheduled to be played in Papua New Guinea. Round 8 was rescheduled to take place in Namibia during November and December 2021. However, only two matches were played, before the remaining fixtures were postponed due to the discovery of a new variant of COVID-19 in Southern Africa.
Schedule
Each team hosts three tri-series, each time joined by a different two of the other six teams. Each tri-series comprises six matches (two between each pair of teams). Therefore, over the course of the whole tournament, each team plays each other team twice at home, twice away, and twice at a neutral venue. The exception is two of Oman’s home matches, against Namibia and UAE, which were cancelled during Round 4, and were instead scheduled to be played in Namibia during Round 8 (although they were again postponed). Oman and UAE played a three-match bilateral series in February 2022 to make up for games that had been postponed in earlier tri-series in Oman and Namibia.
Results from the home and away matches are as follows:
| Home \ Away | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Namibia |
— | Round 15 | 1–1 | Round 18 | Round 15 | Round 12 | Round 18 |
| Nepal |
Round 20 | — | 0–2 | Round 14 | Round 20 | Round 14 | 2–0 |
| Oman |
0–1 | 1–1 | — | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 |
| Papua New Guinea |
Round 9 | Round 19 | Round 8 | — | Round 8 | Round 19 | Round 9 |
| Scotland |
Round 10 | Round 10 | 1–1 | 2–0 | — | Round 16 | Round 16 |
| United Arab Emirates |
2–0 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–0 | — | 0–2 |
| United States |
1–1 | Round 17 | Round 17 | 2–0 | Round 11 | Round 11 | — |
The numbers in square brackets are the numbers of matches played.
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Results from the neutral venue matches are as follows:
| Team 1 \ Team 2 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Namibia |
— | Round 10 | 2–1 | 2–0 | Round 20 | 0–2 | Round 9 |
| Nepal |
— | — | Round 17 | 2–0 | Round 15 | Round 19 | 1–1 |
| Oman |
— | — | — | 2–0 | Round 8 | Held in Oman | 2–0 |
| Papua New Guinea |
— | — | — | — | 0–2 | Round 14 | Round 18 |
| Scotland |
— | — | — | — | — | Round 11 | 1–1 |
| United Arab Emirates |
— | — | — | — | — | — | Round 16 |
| United States |
— | — | — | — | — | — | — |
The numbers in square brackets are the numbers of matches played.
Legend: Blue = left column team win; Yellow = draw; Red = top row team win.
Points table
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | T | NR | Pts | NRR | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oman |
28 | 17 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 36 | 0.096 | Qualification for the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier |
| 2 | United Arab Emirates |
18 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 0.220 | |
| 3 | Scotland |
12 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 0.214 | |
| 4 | Namibia |
14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0.096 | Qualification for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off |
| 5 | United States |
16 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 14 | −0.229 | |
| 6 | Nepal |
12 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.113 | |
| 7 | Papua New Guinea |
16 | 1 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 2 | −0.545 |
Statistics
Most runs
| Batsman | Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | Ave | Strike rate | HS | 100s | 50s | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aqib Ilyas |
16 | 15 | 2 | 801 | 61.61 | 80.66 | 109* | 2 | 5 | |
| Jatinder Singh |
28 | 27 | 0 | 726 | 26.88 | 74.38 | 107 | 2 | 3 | |
| Assad Vala |
16 | 16 | 1 | 681 | 45.40 | 68.10 | 104 | 1 | 2 | |
| Zeeshan Maqsood |
27 | 26 | 3 | 656 | 28.52 | 73.70 | 109 | 1 | 3 | |
| Chirag Suri |
17 | 17 | 0 | 549 | 32.29 | 68.62 | 115 | 2 | 2 | |
| Last updated: 22 March 2022 | ||||||||||
Most wickets
| Bowler | Mat | Inns | Wkts | Runs | Overs | BBI | Ave | Econ | SR | 4WI | 5WI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilal Khan |
27 | 27 | 56 | 1,052 | 229.2 | 5/31 | 18.78 | 4.58 | 24.5 | 3 | 2 | |
| Zeeshan Maqsood |
27 | 27 | 37 | 880 | 211.5 | 4/15 | 23.78 | 4.15 | 34.3 | 2 | 0 | |
| Khawar Ali |
25 | 25 | 30 | 902 | 187.1 | 5/15 | 30.06 | 4.81 | 37.4 | 1 | 1 | |
| Saurabh Netravalkar |
16 | 15 | 26 | 448 | 126.1 | 5/32 | 17.23 | 3.55 | 29.1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Junaid Siddique |
15 | 15 | 26 | 591 | 126.4 | 4/23 | 22.73 | 4.66 | 29.2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Last updated: 22 March 2022 | ||||||||||||