2019–2022 Cricket World Cup Challenge League

The 2019–2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League was the inaugural edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League and a cricket tournament which formed part of the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualification process. The Challenge League replaced the World Cricket League (WCL) which was previously used as the pathway to the Cricket World Cup. The first fixtures took place in September 2019, with all matches having List A status.

The league featured the twelve teams ranked from 21st to 32nd place in the WCL following the conclusion of the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament in Namibia. The twelve teams were split into two groups, with each group playing a six-team tournament three times on an annual basis.

The top team in each group advanced to the Qualifier Play-off, which fed into the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament. The remaining ten teams could not qualify for the 2023 World Cup.

In addition, either of the top teams in the Challenge League could qualify for promotion to the next edition of the Cricket World Cup League 2 by outperforming the two last-placed teams in the 2019–22 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2. Whichever two of these four teams were ranked higher in the Qualifier Play-off played in the next League 2 while the two teams ranked lower played in the next Challenge League.

In an attempt to remain in the Challenge League for the next edition, the bottom four teams in this League (two from each section, A and B) would play in a relegation play-off tournament - facing teams hoping to come up from below.

Participants

The following teams were ranked from 21st to 32nd in the World Cricket League following the conclusion of the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament, and were allocated to Groups A and B.

League Team WCL rank Last WCL tournament Position A 21 5th 23 3rd 25 5th 27 3rd 29 5th 31 3rd B 22 6th 24 4th 26 6th 28 4th 30 6th 32 4th

Fixtures Each group was scheduled to play three times in a single round-robin tournament format, once each year from 2019 to 2022. This amounts to 15 matches per team and a grand total of 90 matches. In July 2019, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that the Malaysian Cricket Association and Cricket Hong Kong would host the 2019 rounds of the tournament. However, citing the instability in Hong Kong, the 2019 matches in League B were moved to Oman. In October 2019, the ICC confirmed that Malaysia would again be the host for the 2020 round of matches in League A, with the Uganda Cricket Association hosting the League B matches.

The 2020 League A tournament in Malaysia was originally scheduled to take place in March 2020. However, in March 2020, the tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rescheduled for 30 September to 10 October 2020. On 10 June 2020, the 2020 League B tournament in Uganda was also postponed due to the pandemic. On 25 August 2020, the rescheduled 2020 League A tournament was postponed again. In December 2020, the ICC announced a revised schedule following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2021, the League A tournament in Canada was postponed by one year, with the League A tournament in Malaysia tentatively brought forward to the end of 2021. In July 2021, the League B tournament scheduled to take place in Jersey in September 2021, was tentatively rescheduled to take place in Hong Kong in December 2021.

LeagueDateLocationNotesA16–26 September 2019MalaysiaB2–12 December 2019OmanB17–27 June 2022UgandaOriginally scheduled for August 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemicA27 July – 6 August 2022CanadaOriginally scheduled for July 2021; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemicB4 – 14 August 2022JerseyOriginally scheduled for September 2021; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemicA3–13 December 2022MalaysiaOriginally scheduled for October 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Points tables League A

League B

Statistics League A Most runs Player Matches Innings Runs Average SR HS 100 50 4s 6s Hamid Shah 14 14 605 43.21 70.76 138 1 5 52 10 Navneet Dhaliwal 8 8 479 79.83 91.76 140 1 3 52 16 Mohammed Rizlan 14 14 418 32.15 59.54 77 0 3 40 6 Zameer Khan 13 13 404 31.07 57.79 60 0 1 28 0 Virandeep Singh 13 13 394 32.83 56.28 73 0 3 32 3Source: ESPNcricinfo

Most wickets Player Matches Innings Wickets Overs Econ. Ave. BBI S/R 4WI 5WI Aryaman Sunil 15 15 27 109.5 5.91 24.07 6/32 24.4 2 1 Nicolaj Laegsgaard 14 14 26 116.0 3.28 14.65 6/6 26.7 1 1 Saad Bin Zafar 14 14 25 110.5 2.94 13.04 5/18 26.6 0 2 Mohammed Nadeem 14 14 24 123.0 3.87 19.87 5/18 30.7 0 1 Vinoth Baskaran 14 14 20 122.4 3.62 22.15 3/26 36.8 0 0Source: ESPNcricinfo

League B Most runs Player Matches Innings Runs Average SR HS 100 50 4s 6s Nick Greenwood 15 15 809 53.93 96.53 141 3 5 93 12 Ronak Patel 15 14 640 58.18 75.73 121* 1 6 76 2 Kinchit Shah 15 15 615 51.25 84.24 139 3 3 64 11 Rakep Patel 15 14 600 46.15 94.63 113 2 3 57 23 Harrison Carlyon 14 14 547 42.07 80.91 96 0 4 80 3Source: ESPNcricinfo

Most wickets Player Matches Innings Wickets Overs Econ. Ave. BBI S/R 4WI 5WI Gareth Berg 15 15 34 128.4 3.66 13.85 5/51 22.7 2 1 Julius Sumerauer 15 15 26 107.4 4.57 18.96 6/32 24.8 0 1 Ehsan Khan 14 13 22 114.1 3.88 20.18 4/17 31.1 2 0 Dinesh Nakrani 15 15 21 117.2 4.47 25.00 3/20 33.5 0 0 Shem Ngoche 13 13 20 113.5 3.71 21.15 3/24 34.1 0 0Source: ESPNcricinfo

2019–2022 Cricket World Cup Challenge League

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