The apex cricketing body, International Cricket Council (ICC) has officially announced the inaugural ODI World Cup Super League tournament for men’s cricket. After the ICC Test Championship, the governing body decided to conduct the tournament to bring in relevance for the bilateral ODI games.
As many as 156 games will be played in the World Cup Super League, starting with the three-match ODI series between England and Ireland from July 30.
There will be 13 teams participating in the tournament, namely, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
The Dutch have booked their berth in the tournament as the thirteenth team after winning the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship featuring Associate Members.
Only one team will be declared as champions. The top seven teams will gain an automatic qualification in the 2023 ODI World Cup scheduled to be hosted in India.
With India as hosts, even the eighth-placed side in the table will gain automatic qualification. The rest of the teams still have a chance to qualify as well. The five teams will have to go at loggerheads with the associate nations in the 2023 ODI World Cup qualifiers.
As far as the points distribution system is concerned, each team will bag 10 points on winning the match and 5 points will be shared if the match is tied or abandoned. No points will be awarded if the team loses.
Most importantly, each team will play a three-match ODI series against eight of the 12 remaining nations, with home and away legs. Therefore, four series will be played at home, and the rest will be played away.
Hence, not all teams will feature against each other, much like in the ICC Test Championship. India will not face-off against Pakistan in the tournament.
