International Cricket Council (ICC) has cleared Nepal’s status in ICC World Cricket League (WCL). Nepal has been listed as one of the four teams featuring in the WCL Division 3 at the official bulletin of ICC.
Nepal’s status was shrouded in confusion after it finished ninth in the 10-team ICC World Cup Qualifiers held in New Zealand in January, earlier this year.
Along with Nepal, ICC has confirmed three other teams — Bermuda, Uganda and the United States of America (USA) — in Division 3. Bermuda had finished at the bottom of the 10 team World Cup Qualifiers. Similarly USA and Uganda had finished third and fourth in the Division 3 championship in May 2013, where Nepal won the title and qualified for Division 2, thereby entering the World Cup Qualifiers.
The ICC decision means Nepal would get an opportunity to return to the first class cricket. But Nepal needs to qualify for the upper Division from Division 3 that consist of six teams.
The top two teams of WCL Division 4, to be chosen from the championship to be held next month will join four teams of Division 3, to play Division 3 championship in last quarter of the year, states ICC. However, the venue is yet to be decided
Earlier, Nepal was understood as the host nation for Division 3. “We had shown out interest in hosting the event. But we have not received any official feedback from the ICC,” said Ashok Nath Pyakurel, General Secretary of Cricket Association of Nepal.
The top two sides from the WCL Division 3 will be promoted to WCL Div 2 and will join Canada, Kenya, Namibia and Netherlands for the event which is expected to be staged in the first half of 2015.
The WCL Div 2 will be a qualifier for the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Championship (WCLC) and ICC Intercontinental Cup 2015-017. The event format, fixtures and other details of the WCLC and ICC Intercontinental Cup is to be announced later.