Sports
Nepal set to embark on lengthy journey
Nepal are set to embark on a long road to qualifying for the 2020 ICC World Twenty20 in Australia with the immediate challenge in the Eastern Region (Group ‘B’) tournament scheduled for October 3-12 in Malaysia.Nepal are set to embark on a long road to qualifying for the 2020 ICC World Twenty20 in Australia with the immediate challenge in the Eastern Region (Group ‘B’) tournament scheduled for October 3-12 in Malaysia.
Nepal recently earned the One-Day International (ODI) status along with Scotland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the ICC World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe but they still had to go through a lengthy process in their bid to make it to the second consecutive appearance in the ICC World Twenty20, which will be held in two years time from October 18 to November 15.
Singapore and Malaysia will be the two familiar foes in the seven-team Eastern Region Qualifiers apart from China, Myanmar, Thailand and Bhutan. Top three teams from the Eastern Region Qualifiers will secure passage for the Asia Final. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Maldives are battling out three other berths from the Western Region (Group ‘A’) Qualifier that started on Friday in Kuwait.
The Asia Final will be contested by six teams with the top two finishers making it to the 2019 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers comprising of 14 teams. Nepal had previously made it to the World Twenty20 Qualifiers of 2012 and 2014 through their performance in the ACC Twenty20 Cups and entered the 2016 tournament by the virtue of being a Twenty20 International nation which they had achieved through their impressive display in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20.
The first round of the Qualifiers are held in 10 different countries in 12 groups from Africa (comprising of 3 groups), Americas (2), Asia (2), East Asia Pacific (2) and Europe (3). A total of 25 teams will qualify for the second round of the Qualifiers in their respective regional finals from where eight teams will advance to the global qualifiers.
Two teams from Africa, one from East Asia Pacific, two from Americas and one from Europe have been given slots to the global qualifiers. The eight teams from the second round of qualifiers will then join six other teams in the global qualifiers from where six teams will qualify for the tournament proper.
The 2016 ICC World Twenty20 participating six teams who are not in the top 10 spots of the ICC Twenty20 International rankings as at December 31, 2018 will complete the 14-team global qualifiers. Scotland, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Oman and Ireland are currently sitting outside the top 10 of the ICC Twenty20 International rankings.