2022–23 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier
Cricket tournament / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2022–23 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier was a cricket tournament that formed part of the qualification process for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.[1][2] In May 2022, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed all the fixtures and venues for the three sub-regional Qualifiers.[3]
The sub-regional phase of European qualification for the previous T20 World Cup was eventually cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] As a result, only four teams had the opportunity to qualify from a regional finals event.[5] Jersey and Germany progressed from that event and thereby gained a bye through the sub-regional stage in the process for the 2024 T20 World Cup.[6]
In this cycle, twenty-eight countries from the European region competed in the sub-regional phase of the tournament, divided into three events being played in June and July 2022.[7] Qualifier C was the first event played,[8] which took place in Belgium between 28 June and 4 July 2022.[9] Qualifiers A and B followed, with both of them hosted in Finland between 12 and 31 July 2022.[10]
The winner of each sub-regional qualifier progressed to the regional final.[3] Denmark became the first team to advance to the regional final, after they beat Portugal by nine wickets in the final of sub-regional Qualifier C.[11] Italy were the second team to progress to the regional final, when they beat the Isle of Man by seven wickets in the final of sub-regional Qualifier A.[12][13] Austria were the last team to qualify from the sub-regional matches, after beating Norway in the final of the sub-regional Qualifier B.[14][15]
Scotland and Ireland enter the regional final as they had failed to qualify directly for the 2024 T20 World Cup.[16][17] The regional final was played in Edinburgh, Scotland in July 2023.[18] On 27 July 2023, Ireland secured qualification for the T20 World Cup when their fifth game at the regional final was abandoned due to rain.[19] Later the same day, Scotland also qualified after a fifth consecutive victory.[20][21] Scotland defeated Ireland by 8 runs in the last game to win the tournament.[22]