Race for World Cup resumes in February
The race for World Cup places in 2014-15 will resume in February when the qualifying tournament gets back underway with Ireland taking on Kenya
ESPNcricinfo staff
06-Dec-2011
Paul Stirling will be a key player for Ireland in 2012 • Getty Images
The race for World Cup places in 2014-15 will resume in February when the qualifying tournament gets back underway with Ireland, who currently lead the table with four wins from four, taking on Kenya in Mombasa.
Scotland, who are also on eight points alongside Ireland, resume their campaign against UAE in March after ICC confirmed the latest set of Intercontinental one-day and Cup matches.
The one-day matches, which form the qualifying tournament for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, run alongside the four-day Intercontinental Cup fixtures. There are four places available alongside the ten Full Members at the next World Cup following the u-turn from ICC after the decision had initially been taken to shrink the event down to ten nations.
Currently the third and fourth qualifying spots are held by UAE and Netherlands with Afghanistan also on four points. Afghanistan and Netherlands go head-to-head at the end of March in Sharjah while Namibia and Canada, who are both yet to secure a victory, will aim to kick-start their chances in early April.
Ireland are also in top spot in the Intercontinental Cup table, 17 points ahead of UAE, although all the teams have only played two matches so far.
The other crucial cricket for Associate and Affiliate members early next year is the World Twenty20 qualifiers where two places are up for grabs at the full tournament in Sri Lanka next September.