2020–2023 Icc Cricket World Cup Super League

The league took place from July 2020 to May 2023, and served as part of the 2023 Cricket World Cup qualification process.

2020–23 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League

Dates	30 July 2020 – 14 May 2023
Administrator(s)	International Cricket Council
Cricket format	One Day International
Tournament format(s)	Group tournament
Host(s)	Various
Participants	13
Matches	156
Most runs	Babar Azam (1454)
Most wickets	Adam Zampa (41)
Official website	icc-cricket.com

The league featured thirteen teams, the twelve Full Members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), and the Netherlands, who won the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship to qualify for this competition. Each team were scheduled to play an ODI series against eight of the other twelve teams, four series at home and four away. Each series consisted of three ODIs.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the start of the league, with several series of matches being postponed. In April 2020, following a Chief Executives' meeting, the ICC announced that it would look at the future of the league at a later date, once there is a better understanding of the impact of the pandemic on cricket. The series between England and Ireland, starting 30 July 2020, were the first matches of the league. In March 2022, as a result of the impact from the pandemic, the ICC agreed to extend the cut-off date for the tournament until May 2023, allowing the series between Ireland and Bangladesh to take place.

 

Thirteen teams qualified:

• Full Members of the ICC:
  •   Afghanistan
  •   Australia
  •   Bangladesh
  •   England
  •   India
  •   Ireland
  •   New Zealand
  •   Pakistan
  •   South Africa
  •   Sri Lanka
  •   West Indies
  •   Zimbabwe
• Winners of the 2015-2017 ICC Cricket World Cricket League Championship
  •   Netherlands

For the World Cup, the hosts, and the top seven sides thereafter, were qualified automatically. The remaining five teams advanced to a qualifying event—the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier—along with five Associate sides, from which two sides went through to the World Cup.

The top twelve teams in this Super League remain in the Super League for the next World Cup cycle. The 13th ranked team in this Super League and the champions of the 2019–22 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 took part in World Cup Qualifier, where the better team placed the 13th spot in the next Super League while the team ranked lower qualified in the next League 2.

The tournament was a partial round-robin league and played over two years. Each team were scheduled to play eight other opponents, four at home and four away, in series consisting of three ODI matches. This meant that a given team did not face all other opponents in their group, but all teams were scheduled to the same number of matches ( i.e., 12 matches at home and 12 matches away).

Points were awarded as follows:

• Win – 10 points
• No result or abandoned – 5 points
• Loss – 0 points

1. If a match was abandoned and the pitch or outfield was declared unfit by the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, then the match point was awarded to the visiting team.
2. A team that was behind the required over-rate at the end of a match teams had one competition point deducted for each over it was behind.
3. Tied matches were decided by a Super Over. If a Super Over were a tie, subsequent Super Overs played until there was a winner.

Following a trial that started in December 2019, the ICC announced the use of technology to monitor front-foot no-balls for all matches in the Super League. The third umpire called the front-foot no-balls, communicating with the on-field umpires.

The match schedule was announced by the ICC on 20 June 2018 as part of the 2018–23 ICC Future Tours Programme.

Home \ Away
Afghanistan		Cancelled	—	—	—	3–0	3–0	—	Cancelled	—	—	—	—
Australia	—		—	—	2–1	—	—	3–0	—	Cancelled	—	—	2–1
Bangladesh	2–1	—		1–2	—	—	—	—	—	—	2–1	3–0	—
England	—	1–2	—		—	2–1	—	—	3–0	—	2–0	—	—
India	Cancelled	—	—	2–1		—	—	—	—	2–1	—	3–0	—
Ireland	—	—	0–2	—	—		—	0–3	—	1–1	—	—	1–1
Netherlands	—	—	—	0–3	—	2–1		—	0–3	—	—	0–3	—
New Zealand	—	—	3–0	—	1–0	—	3–0		—	—	2–0	—	—
Pakistan	—	2–1	—	—	—	—	—	1–2		—	—	3–0	2–1
South Africa	—	—	1–2	2–1	—	—	2–0	—	1–2		—	—	—
Sri Lanka	1–1	—	—	—	1–2	—	—	—	—	2–1		—	2–1
West Indies	—	1–2	—	—	—	1–2	—	1–2	—	—	3–0		—
Zimbabwe	0–3	—	0–3	—	0–3	—	2–1	—	—	—	—	—

Source: ESPNcricinfo
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

The four teams that each side were not scheduled to face in the tournament was as follows:

Team	Did Not Play
Afghanistan	England	New Zealand	South Africa	West Indies
Australia	Bangladesh	Ireland	Netherlands	Sri Lanka
Bangladesh	Australia	India	Netherlands	Pakistan
England	Afghanistan	New Zealand	West Indies	Zimbabwe
India	Bangladesh	Ireland	Netherlands	Pakistan
Ireland	Australia	India	Pakistan	Sri Lanka
Netherlands	Australia	India	Bangladesh	Sri Lanka
New Zealand	Afghanistan	England	South Africa	Zimbabwe
Pakistan	Bangladesh	India	Ireland	Sri Lanka
South Africa	Afghanistan	New Zealand	West Indies	Zimbabwe
Sri Lanka	Australia	Ireland	Netherlands	Pakistan
West Indies	Afghanistan	England	South Africa	Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe	England	New Zealand	South Africa	West Indies

COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic began before the start of the league, which was originally scheduled for May 2020 to March 2022, and resulted in no international cricket being played from March to July 2020. All Super League fixtures scheduled for 2020 were postponed or rescheduled with considerations for pandemic-related restrictions. Fixtures had to be reconsidered to account for the disruptions to the schedule.

Bangladesh's matches against Ireland were postponed on 21 March 2020. In April 2020, South Africa's tour to Sri Lanka was postponed. The same month, Pakistan's tour of the Netherlands and the West Indies tour of the Netherlands were both postponed, after the Dutch government banned all events in the country, both sports and cultural, until 1 September 2020. On 15 May 2020, Cricket Ireland confirmed that the tour by New Zealand had also been postponed. On 12 June 2020, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that it had called off their tours to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. On 30 June, Cricket Australia confirmed that their planned home series against Zimbabwe had also been postponed due to the virus. New Zealand's tour of the West Indies was postponed, after the fixtures clashed with the West Indies rescheduled tour to England. In August 2020, the Netherlands' tour of the Zimbabwe was cancelled due to the pandemic.

The first matches of the Super League were Ireland's 3-match ODI series in England which were originally scheduled for September 2020 but brought forward to July and August with all three matches taking place in Southampton. Australia's tour of England, which was originally to take place in July 2020, was postponed and took place in September 2020. England's tour of South Africa was postponed following an outbreak of COVID-19 among members of both teams and the hotel staff.

In December 2020, the ICC rescheduled the postponed series to a new schedule which would end in March 2023. A further, minor extension to May 2023 was announced in March 2022.