The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier gets underway in Edinburgh from 20 to 28 July.
Seven teams – Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jersey and Scotland – go head-to-head in 21 matches over eight days, in the race for two spots to what will be the biggest ICC Men’s T20 World Cup ever, in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA) in June 2024.
Scotland, who just narrowly missed out on qualifying for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, will look to put aside their disappointment from the recently concluded ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe and focus on their next mission, which is to qualify for the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
Fans can enjoy the Europe Qualifier by watching it live on FanCode in India and ICC.tv in the UK and the rest of the world. Additionally, all six of Scotland’s fixtures will also be available for broadcast on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app in the UK.
Scotland captain, Richie Berrington said: “We are looking forward to what is another great opportunity to qualify for a World Cup, and it’s exciting for everyone in Scottish cricket to be hosting the Europe Qualifier. It will be great to play in front of home crowds again.”
Austria captain, Razmal Shigiwal said: “It is an honour for Austria to play in this event against the best teams in Europe. We rarely get such an opportunity to test ourselves against such strong opposition. All of our players have trained hard, and we are looking forward to the opportunity to showcase the potential of this Austrian team.”
Denmark captain, Hamid Shah said: “We are very excited and looking forward to the challenges in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier tournament. Since winning the Sub-Regional Qualifier C last year, we have prepared specifically for this tournament to level-up our skills to compete against the top teams. I am confident that we will surprise some teams.”
Germany captain, Venkatraman Ganesan said: “We are extremely excited to be a part of this tournament, and the opportunity to qualify for the 2024 T20 World Cup is a huge motivation for the whole squad. We hope to leverage our experience from playing at the last Global Qualifiers in Oman and rise to the occasion this time to produce better results. I would like to wish good luck to all other participating teams, and I cannot wait for the action to start!”
Ireland captain, Paul Stirling said: “After the performances put in by our lads at the T20 World Cup in Australia last year, we are keen to ensure we get back on the world stage again to showcase the talent that Irish cricket has within its ranks.
“T20 can be a very unpredictable format at times, so we’ll need to be at our best to succeed over the next 10 days in Scotland. Every squad at this Qualifier is here with the same objective – to qualify for the main event in the West Indies and USA next year, so we expect tough, competitive cricket and won’t be taking any opponent lightly.”
Italy captain, Gareth Berg said: “We’ve been working hard with our high-performance players over the past eight months preparing for Edinburgh – a tournament that will no doubt be exciting for any supporter of the game. Each match in this Qualifier will be like playing a World Cup final, but our players and coaching staff have worked hard in our preparations, and we are looking forward to stepping over those boundary ropes and putting in some strong performances.”
Jersey captain, Charles ‘Chuggy’ Perchard said: “We are excited to be competing in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier in Scotland. The players are focused on the opportunity to qualify for the 2024 T20 World Cup.”
Andy Wright, ICC Regional Development Manager – Europe said: “The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier is set to be the biggest and highest profile event the Europe region has seen, with direct qualification to the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup a reality for two of the seven participating teams. The stage is set, and we are looking forward to welcoming the sides in Edinburgh for 21 highly competitive matches played in front of passionate fans from across the region.
“I would like to wish all seven teams the best of luck for the tournament, and pay tribute to the staff, venues and volunteers of Cricket Scotland who have worked tirelessly to put on what I am sure will be an outstanding event.”
The participating squads are as follows:
Austria: Razmal Shigiwal (Captain), Mark Simpson-Parker, Shahil Momin, Armaan Randhawa, Ahsan Mirza, Umair Tariq, Aqib Iqbal, Iqbal Hossain, Amit Nathwani, Navin Wijesekera, Mehar Cheema, Jaweed Sadran, Adeel Tariq, Abdullah Akbarjan, Sahel Zadran
Denmark: Hamid Shah (Captain), Surya Anand, Taranjit Bharaj, Saud Munir, Abdul Hashmi, Oliver Hald, Jonas Henriksen, Shangeev Thanikatihasan, Nicolaj Lægsgaard, Saif Ahmad, Saran Aslam, Abdullah Mahmood, Eshan Karimi, Musa Mahmood, Lucky Ali Malik
Germany: Venkatraman Ganesan (Captain), Sahir Naqash, Harmanjot Singh, Vijayshankar Chikkannaiah, Abdul Shakoor, Sri Vishnu Elam Barathi, Muslim Yar Ashraf, Ghulam Ahmadi, Sachin Gangareddy, Zahid Zadran, Michael Richardson, Dieter Klein, Joshua van Heerden, Dylan Blignaut, Fasial bin Mubashir
Ireland: Paul Stirling (Captain), Andrew Balbirnie, George Dockrell, Curtis Campher, Ross Adair, Mark Adair, Theo van Woerkom, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Benjamin White, Neil Rock, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, Craig Young, Graham Hume
Italy: Gareth Berg (Captain), Marcus Campopiano, JP Meade, Harry Manenti, Justin Mosca, Ben Manenti, Anthony Mosca, Grant Stewart, Wayne Madsen, Crishan Kalugamage, Syed Naqvi, Manpreet Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Stefano Di Bartolomeo, Jaspreet Singh
Jersey: Charles Perchard (Captain), Dominic Blampied, Elliot Miles, Rhys Palmer, Harrison Carlyon, Joshua Lawrenson, Charlie Brennan, Toby Britton, Asa Tribe, Julius Sumerauer, William Perchard, Zak Tribe, Jonty Jenner, Nicholas Greenwood, Benjamin Ward
Scotland: Richie Berrington (Captain), Henry Munsey, Michael Leask, Gavin Main, Chris Sole, Christopher Greaves, Safyaan Sharif, Jack Jarvis, Matthew Cross, Tomas Mackintosh, Hamza Tahir, Mark Watt, Brandon McMullen, Oliver Hairs, Bradley Currie
Africa, Asia and Europe will have two qualification spots, with one spot up for grabs for both the Americas and East Asia Pacific regions.
Regional Finals 2023
Europe (2 qualifying teams)
20-28 July 2023 – Scotland
Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Scotland.
East Asia Pacific (1 qualifying team)
21-29 July 2023 – Papua New Guinea
Japan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Vanuatu.
Americas (1 qualifying team)
30 September-7 October 2023 – Bermuda
Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Panama.
Africa (2 qualifying teams)
20 November – 1 December 2023 – Namibia
Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe.
Asia (2 qualifying teams)
Dates & location TBA
Bahrain, Hong Kong, Nepal, Oman, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Winner of Sub Regional Qualifier A & Winner of Sub Regional Qualifier B.
Note to Editors
About the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup qualification
For the first time, 20 teams will form part of the event and will be divided into four groups of five. The top two teams in each of the groups will move to a Super Eight phase, where the remaining teams will be split into two groups of four. The top two in each group will then make their way to the semi-finals.
Twelve teams have already secured their places for the 2024 show piece.
The qualified teams so far are Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, USA and West Indies.
( Courtesy – ICC )
