Dates | 4 – 25 March 2018 |
---|---|
Administrator(s) | International Cricket Council |
Cricket format | One Day International List A cricket |
Tournament format(s) | Round-robin and Knockout |
Host(s) | Zimbabwe |
Champions | Afghanistan (1st title) |
Runners-up | West Indies |
Participants | 10 |
Matches | 34 |
Player of the series | Sikander Raza |
Most runs | Brendan Taylor (457) |
Most wickets | Mujeeb Ur Rahman (16) |
The 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place during March 2018 in Zimbabwe.[1] It formed the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales.[2] The top two teams, Afghanistan national cricket team and the West Indies, qualified for the World Cup, joining the hosts and the seven teams who had already qualified through their ranking in the ICC ODI Championship.[3] Afghanistan won the tournament, beating the West Indies by 7 wickets in the final.[4] Afghanistan’s Mohommad Shahzad was named the player of the match[5] and Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza was named the player of the tournament.[6]
The tournament was initially scheduled to take place in Bangladesh,[7] but in May 2017 it was reported that the event would instead be hosted elsewhere as Bangladesh were close to automatic qualification, and thus would not need to participate in this tournament. Three bids were under consideration: one from Zimbabwe, one from Nepal and a joint-bid from Ireland and Scotland, who were the winners of the previous qualifier tournament.[8][9][10]
In October 2017, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that Zimbabwe would host the event.[11] In January 2018, the ICC confirmed all the fixtures and venues for the tournament.[12] At the end of the tournament, the Netherlands (who won the ICC World Cricket League Championship) and the top three Associate Member teams earned One Day International (ODI) status until 2023.[13]