The qualification system for T20 World Cup is set to be overhauled for the 2021 edition, with the 14-team Global T20 Qualifier cut and replaced with two smaller qualification tournaments, each featuring eight teams, Cricbuzz reports.
Below these two tournaments, the (Sub) Regional ladder that served as a pathway for 2020 also sees some changes, with fewer tournaments for the Africa, Asia, Americas and East Asia Pacific regions, albeit likely with no substantial reduction in the total number of participating teams.
The 12 teams making up the Super 12 stage of the 2020 tournament will gain automatic qualification for the 2021 edition, effectively meaning that the top eight sides at the time of the 2020 cut-off (31 December 2018) who receive a bye to the Super 12s - namely Pakistan, India, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the West Indies and Afghanistan - are also guaranteed qualification for 2021.
The four of the eight further qualifiers for 2020 that win through the "first round" to the Super 12s - Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, Ireland, Scotland and Oman - will also win direct qualification, with the remaining four sides dropping back into one of the two new supra-regional qualifiers.
They will be joined at the two qualifiers by Zimbabwe, Nepal, the UAE and Hong Kong, who were awarded byes to skip regional qualifying on the basis of their T20I ranking on January 1 this year. Eight further teams will come up through regional qualifiers - one each from East Asia Pacific and Africa and two each from Asia, Americas and Europe. Initially labelled the "East" and "West" Global Qualifiers, preliminary documents suggested the participating teams would be allocated on the basis of geography as well as ranking, but with the four teams to drop down from the 2020 edition still unknown the quasi-regional aspect of the two tournaments appears to have been dropped, with the final draw taking place only after the 2020 T20 World Cup.
The regional qualifying ladder has also been cut back somewhat, with the East Asia Pacific and Americas regions each holding only a single qualifying event as opposed to two sub-regionals and a regional final as for 2020, while Asia will have two qualifying tournaments with the winner of each progressing directly to one of the two new supra-regional qualifiers.
