The World Cricket League Explained

The Hong Kong team will be heading to Darwin, Australia in the last week of May 2008 to participate in the ICC's World Cricket League Global Division Three tournament.

Hong Kong Cricket Association

04-May-2007

The Hong Kong team will be heading to Darwin, Australia in the last week of May 2007 to participate in the ICC's World Cricket League Global Division Three tournament.

2007 is the first full year of the World Cricket League and the ICC is providing a complex series of promotion/relegation tournaments between teams from around the world (based on the results of regional tournaments) to establish a global ranking system for the next 20 countries outside the current ten teams with ODI status (i.e. world rankings 11-30). These rankings will be used to determine eligibility for qualifying tournaments leading up to the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The following is an outline of the World Cricket League Divisions as they stand today:

The 2007 Global Division One comprises the second tier teams - Kenya, Canada, Scotland, Netherlands, Bermuda and Ireland - all of who participated in 2007 Cricket World Cup. Kenya is the current World Cricket League champions.

Division Two currently comprises Denmark, Namibia, Oman and United Arab Emirates. The group will be completed when the top two teams from the Division Three tournament in Darwin will be elevated to Division Two. A Division Two tournament will be played in Namibia from 23 November to 3 December 2007.

Division Three comprises the top teams from regional qualifying tournaments in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific. The teams are Hong Kong, Uganda, Tanzania, Cayman Islands, Argentina, Italy, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

Division Five comprises lower finishing teams in the same regional qualifying tournaments. The Asian teams qualifying for Division Five are Afghanistan, Nepal and Singapore. A Division Five tournament will be played in 2008.

Division Four will be formed in the second half of 2008 and will comprise the teams finishing 5th-8th in the 2007 Division Three tournament plus the two top teams from the 2008 Division Five Tournament.

Hong Kong gained its place in Division Three on account of its second place finish at the ACC Trophy 2006. Other Asian teams, such as Nepal and Singapore, which have held the upper hand in recent exchanges over Hong Kong (at least in the three day matches) did not fare so well in that tournament and find themselves languishing in Division Five, whilst teams like Malaysia have missed the cut altogether and are ranked outside the top 30.