New league for CWC qualifiers

London - Cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) approved a new system of qualifying for the 2015 World Cup here on Monday.

It is a result of a humiliating u-turn by the ICC after they had originally announced that the 2015 tournament would be just contested by the 10 Test-playing countries.

However, following a negative reaction to that they have decided to organise qualifying which will see four second tier countries end up fighting out the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

There will be a new 50-over League introduced which will serve as the qualifying programme for the World Cup.

The top two teams in the eight team 50-over League will qualify automatically for the World Cup and the remainder of the teams will be joined by the teams finishing third and fourth in the World Cricket League Division 2.

The top two teams will compete in the new League to decide the remaining two qualifiers. The event will take place at a venue and on a date still to be decided.

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said that this system would enable all countries to have a shot - no matter what level they were at the moment.

"This will provide exciting context for the new 50-over League with every one of the Associate and Affiliate teams able to make their way from Division eight of the World Cricket League all the way to the ICC Cricket World Cup finals," said Lorgat.

While the 2015 World Cup will be a 14-team competition the 2019 World Cup will be a scaled-down 10-team event, with the top eight places being awarded to the top-ranked teams and two berths being awarded in a pre-qualifying tournament.