Namibia face Papua New Guinea in opening World Cricket League Division 2 campaign in April
The senior men’s cricket team will commence their ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 quest with a match against Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the World Cricket League Division 2 (WCL2) tournament, slated for Windhoek in April.
The fixtures for World Cricket League Division 2, were confirmed this week, according to Cricket Namibia’s website.
The teams that will participate in the week long tournament include hosts Namibia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, the USA and Papua New Guinea. The tournament will begin on 20 April, when Canada take on Hong Kong, Oman face off against USA, and hosts Namibia clash with Papua New Guinea.
The tournament will conclude the following Saturday with the final and playoffs for third and fifth position.
According to Cricket Namibia, the competition will have important ramifications for qualification for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. The top four teams from WCL2 will join Scotland, Nepal, and the United Arab Emirates in the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2, (2019-21), and play 36 one day internationals each over a two and a half year period in 21 tri-series.
The top three in this table will qualify for the Cricket World Cup Qualifier, from which the top two sides will qualify for the Cricket World Cup 2023.
According to Cricket Namibia for the bottom two sides, this won’t be the end of their CWC dream. They will enter the Cricket World Cup Qualifier Challenge League A and B, from which the winner of each will progress to the Cricket World Cup Qualifier play-off. The top two sides in the CWCQ play-off, which will also contain the bottom four sides from CWC League 2, will enter CWCQ 2022.
The full schedule for the tournament is as follows:
Saturday 20 April : PNG v Namibia, Wanderers; Canada v Hong Kong, WAP and Oman v USA, Trustco UNITED
Sunday 21 April: Namibia v USA, Wanderers; Canada v Oman, WAP and PNG v Hong Kong, Trustco UNITED
Tuesday 23 April: Hong Kong v Oman, Wanderers; PNG v USA, WAP; Namibia v Canada, Trustco UNITED
Wednesday 24 April: PNG v Canada, Wanderers; Namibia v Oman, WAP and Hong Kong v USA, Trustco UNITED
Friday 26 April: Canada v USA, Wanderers; Namibia v Hong Kong, WAP and PNG v Oman, Trustco UNITED
Saturday 27 April: Final, Wanderers; Third-place play-off, WAP and Fifth-place play-off, Trustco UNITED.
