The road to 2023 World Cup qualification is not going to be an easy one for Sri Lanka

• Qualifying for a place in a Cricket World Cup

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Qualifying for a fifty-over Cricket World Cup is something that Sri Lanka has never done since 1979. But that is the sad state of affairs that our ODI team is facing today. Proud World Cup champions in 1996 and twice finalists in 2007 and 2011, Sri Lanka who were once the most feared one-day side in world cricket has never undergone this sort of humiliation of having to qualify for a place to play in a Cricket World Cup. 

In 1975, Sri Lanka was invited with East Africa to participate in the inaugural World Cup. But in 1979, the ICC decided to hold a qualifying tournament amongst the associate member countries with the two finalists gaining a place in the Cricket World Cup making it eight teams. Sri Lanka who were still an associate member of the ICC at the time had to compete with 14 other associate countries in three groups. Sri Lanka emerged the first winners of the ICC trophy beating Canada in the final. The two finalists filled the two remaining places in the eight-team competition, which was the second in the series.

Since then Sri Lanka has always been part of the Cricket World Cup with the ICC using the ODI rankings to determine which teams qualify to play in the tournament. However, after the 2019 Cricket World Cup, the ICC decided to replace the ODI rankings with a Super League as the route to direct qualification for the 2023 Cricket World Cup which will be held in India in October-November.

This new qualification process the ICC said was introduced because they found the ODI rankings “involved intricate calculations and was unbalanced and open to manipulation with no obligation for top teams to play against lesser teams, who were left with no chance to improve their positions”. 

The Super League in comparison “provided lesser teams with better competition with the prospect of better attendance, financial gain and increased popularity of cricket in their countries, and it involved a simple points table and the same number of matches for each team”.     

“The Super League is a brand new ODI competition, which takes place across two years and aims to raise the stakes of bilateral 50-over games,” said the ICC. “In the first edition, the Super League will help decide which teams feature in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India. Thirteen teams took part in this competition – 12 full member nations along with the Netherlands, winners of the ICC World Cricket League championships.”       

The top seven teams in the Super League points table along with hosts India gained automatic qualification leaving the bottom five teams to play in a qualifying tournament which also features the best teams from the lower rungs of competition.

Each team in the Super League played three ODIs against eight other teams – four home series and four away series, a total of 24 ODIs that earned those points on the ‘RoadTo2023’. Since each point mattered there were no dead rubbers and the teams had to always be at their very best.

In Sri Lanka’s case they have sadly not been playing their best ODI cricket and that’s why they find themselves finishing tenth in the final World Cup Super League standings and face a qualifying round of matches which is scheduled to take place in Zimbabwe from 18 June to 9 July. Of their 24 matches, Sri Lanka won only seven against 14 defeats (with 3 no-results) to show against their name with a total of 81 points.

The cold hard facts is that in the 24 ODI matches Sri Lanka used 39 players, but only three of them made a hundred, which alone tells where the problem lies. It is not that other teams have not used as many players if not more, but they have produced results, whereas Sri Lanka have not.

Sri Lanka’s failure to put runs on the board has been their biggest drawback. In seven of their 21 completed matches they failed to last the 50 overs. Their major concern is their top and middle order not delivering, which has put the bowlers under tremendous pressure as they cannot set attacking fields to obtain wickets. Sri Lanka topped the 300-run mark only thrice in the 24 matches and on each occasion they did that, they won.  

Where Sri Lanka missed out on opportunities to gain valuable points is in their home series against a second string Indian team (the majority of the Indian players were in England for the Test series) to whom they lost 2-1. They also missed opportunities against South Africa, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan – all played at home, where they dropped at least one game in each series. If they had won two of the matches which they lost, Sri Lanka would have been home and dry for their tally of points (101 instead of 81) would have gained them automatic qualification.  

Dushmantha Chameera their main strike bowler took the most wickets 22 wickets (avg. 29.68) but he was available for only 16 matches missing most of it through injury. Only three other bowlers took more than 10 wickets – Wanindu Hasaranga (17), Chamika Karunaratne (15), and Kasun Rajitha (10), but more than the bowling it is their batting that needs to be rectified.

Playing in the qualifying round is not going to be all that easy for Sri Lanka because the ten teams in the running for the final two places include two-time past champions West Indies, hosts Zimbabwe, full member Ireland and associate members Netherlands, Scotland, Oman, Nepal, USA and UAE, all of whom will also fancy their chances.

Overseas player registration for LPL-4 commences