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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.[1][2] The Challenge League replaced the World Cricket League (WCL) which was previously used as the pathway to the Cricket World Cup.[3] The first fixtures took place in September 2019, with all matches having List A status.[4]
| Dates | 16 September 2019 – 13 December 2022 |
|---|---|
| Administrator(s) | International Cricket Council |
| Cricket format | List A |
| Tournament format(s) | Round-robin |
| Host(s) | |
| Champions |  Canada (League A)  Jersey (League B) |
| Participants | 12 |
| Matches | 90 |
| Most runs |  Hamid Shah (605) (League A) Nick Greenwood (809) (League B) |
| Most wickets |  Aryaman Sunil (27) (League A)  Gareth Berg (34) (League B) |
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.[3] The twelve teams were split into two groups, with each group playing a six-team tournament three times on an annual basis.[3]
The top team in each group advanced to the Qualifier Play-off, which fed into the 2022 Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament.[1] The remaining ten teams could not qualify for the 2023 World Cup.[5]
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.[6]
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.
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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,[7] and were allocated to Groups A and B.[8][9]
| League | Team | WCL rank | Last WCL tournament | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Canada | 21 | Division Two in 2019 | 5th[10] |
| Singapore | 23 | Division Three in 2018 | 3rd[11] | |
| Denmark | 25 | Division Three in 2018 | 5th[11] | |
 Malaysia | 27 | Division Four in 2018 | 3rd[12] | |
 Vanuatu | 29 | Division Four in 2018 | 5th[12] | |
 Qatar | 31 | Division Five in 2017 | 3rd[13] | |
| B |  Hong Kong | 22 | Division Two in 2019 | 6th[10] |
 Kenya | 24 | Division Three in 2018 | 4th[11] | |
 Uganda | 26 | Division Three in 2018 | 6th[11] | |
| Jersey | 28 | Division Four in 2018 | 4th[12] | |
 Bermuda | 30 | Division Four in 2018 | 6th[12] | |
| Italy | 32 | Division Five in 2017 | 4th[13] |
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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.[6] 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.[14] However, citing the instability in Hong Kong, the 2019 matches in League B were moved to Oman.[15] 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.[16]
The 2020 League A tournament in Malaysia was originally scheduled to take place in March 2020.[17] However, in March 2020, the tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rescheduled for 30 September to 10 October 2020.[18][19] On 10 June 2020, the 2020 League B tournament in Uganda was also postponed due to the pandemic.[20] On 25 August 2020, the rescheduled 2020 League A tournament was postponed again.[21] In December 2020, the ICC announced a revised schedule following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[22] 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.[23][24] 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.[25]
| League | Date | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 16–26 September 2019 | Malaysia | |
| B | 2–12 December 2019 | Oman | |
| B | 17–27 June 2022 | Uganda | Originally scheduled for August 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
| A | 27 July – 6 August 2022 | Canada | Originally scheduled for July 2021; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
| B | 4 – 14 August 2022 | Jersey | Originally scheduled for September 2021; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
| A | 3–13 December 2022 | Malaysia | Originally scheduled for October 2020; postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
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League A
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | T | NR | Pts | NRR | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada |
15 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 2.563 | Advanced to the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off |
| 2 | Denmark |
15 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 0.573 | |
| 3 | Qatar |
15 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 17 | −0.369 | |
| 4 | Singapore |
15 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 14 | −0.061 | |
| 5 | Malaysia |
15 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 8 | −1.058 | Advanced to the 2024 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League Play-off |
| 6 | Vanuatu |
15 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 7 | −1.365 |
Source: ESPN Cricinfo[26]
League B
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | T | NR | Pts | NRR | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jersey |
15 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 1.541 | Advanced to the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off |
| 2 | Uganda |
15 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 1.062 | |
| 3 | Hong Kong |
15 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 0.548 | |
| 4 | Kenya |
15 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 0.188 | |
| 5 | Italy |
15 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 11 | −0.626 | Advanced to the 2024 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League Play-off |
| 6 | Bermuda |
15 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −3.192 |
Source: ESPN Cricinfo[27]
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 | 3 |
| Source: ESPNcricinfo[28] | ||||||||||
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 | 0 |
| Source: ESPNcricinfo[29] | ||||||||||
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 | 3 |
| Source: ESPNcricinfo[30] | ||||||||||
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 | 0 |
| Source: ESPNcricinfo[31] | ||||||||||
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