by Rex Clementine
The national cricket team left for Zimbabwe on Saturday to take part in the World Cup Qualifiers, their last chance to earn a spot for the sport’s showpiece event – the ICC Cricket World Cup – to be held in India in October and November.
Only the top eight ranked teams gained automatic qualification for the World Cup. Sri Lanka struggled during the qualifying period winning only seven of their 24 games and losing 14 matches, collecting just 81 points.
The World Cup Qualifiers features ten teams and only two of them go through the World Cup. Along with Sri Lanka, two times champions West Indies, who failed to go through strait will be involved in the qualifications.
Sri Lanka are in Group ‘B’ alongside Ireland, Scotland, Oman and UAE. The top three teams in the group will progress to the Super Six stage where they will take on the other three qualifiers from Group ‘A’. The points from the group stage against the other teams that qualified will be taken forward for the Super Six stage. The top two teams will end up playing the finals apart from earning spots in the World Cup that will only feature ten teams.
Sri Lanka and West Indies are tipped to reach the finals and progress for the World Cup. Sri Lanka’s win over Afghanistan last week should give them confidence ahead of the qualifying round. Afghanistan are already through to the World Cup
Sri Lanka’s first game is against the UAE on the 19th June followed by matches against Oman, Ireland and Scotland. Dasun Shanaka’s side will play a warm-up game against Netherlands on the 13th June followed by another warm-up game against USA, two days later.
Sri Lanka have featured in every World Cup since taking part in the inaugural edition in 1975 under the captaincy of Anura Tennakoon. This is the first time Sri Lanka are playing a qualifying round in the 50 over format since 1979.
Sri Lanka’s World Cup Qualifiers Schedule
Warm-up games
June 13 – versus Netherlands
June 15 – versus USA
Group Matches
June 19 – versus UAE
June 23 – versus Oman
June 25– versus Ireland
June 27 – versus Scotland