UAE to take on Kenya in ICC WCLC

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UAE to take on Kenya in ICC WCLC

Teams to clash in World Cricket League game in Southampton

By Moni Mathews (Principal Correspondent)

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Published: Thu 25 Jun 2015, 1:57 PM

Last updated: Wed 8 Jul 2015, 2:48 PM

UAE players spent a month in a training camp at the ICC Academy Indoor complex in Dubai. — AFP

Dubai — The UAE take on Kenya in Southampton on Thursday — first ball 2pm UAE time — in an ICC World Cricket League Championship (ICC WCLC) game, well ahead of the UAE’s opening match of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2015 on July 9 against Scotland. The sides, both placed in Group B of the qualifiers next month, will play their second match on Saturday at the same venue.

ICC WCLC is a 50-over competition played between leading Associate and Affiliate members. The ICC WCLC is the pathway for participating teams to play in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 (ICC CWCQ) and subsequently have a chance to qualify for ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

Led by Mohammed Tauqir and coached by Aqib Javed, former Pakistan pace bowler, the 2014 ICC World Cup (50 overs) entrants, the UAE spent a month in a training camp at the ICC Academy indoor complex in Dubai.

The ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2015 will see 14 sides go head to head in Ireland and Scotland for six available places in ICC World Twenty20 India 2016.

Defending champions Ireland are seeking their third straight title win in the qualifying event that will be staged across eight Ireland and Scotland venues from July 9-26.

The top six sides from the 18-day tournament during which 51 matches will be played, will join the 10 Full Members for the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016, which will be held from 11 March 11 to April 3, 2016. Ireland won the March 2012 qualifying tournament and the November 2013 qualifiers, both times defeating Afghanistan in the final.

Both Ireland and Afghanistan are in different groups. Ireland is joined in Group A by Nepal, Hong Kong, Jersey Papua New Guinea (PNG), Namibia and United States of America (USA), while Pool B includes Canada, Netherlands, Scotland, Kenya, Oman and the UAE apart from Afghanistan.

The ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2015 will see the sides that top the two groups qualify automatically for the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016, while the sides that finish second and third in each of the two groups will play cross-over matches with the two winners joining the table-toppers for the India tournament.

The losing sides of the two play-off matches will then play the fourth-placed sides from each of the two groups in cross-over matches with the winners completing the 16-team line-up for the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016.

The fifth-sixth and third-fourth position play-offs as well as the final will be played on the last three days of the tournament based on which these teams’ seeding/groupings for the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016 will be confirmed.

First, the UAE, who made it to the 2014 Bangladesh edition of the T20 World Cup, have to come clean from the challenges thrown up by the 14 countries of the associate and third tier groups who will assemble for the qualifiers in Ireland and Scotland next month.

 


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