A recalculation of the ICC T20I rankings has seen Singapore awarded automatic qualification to the global qualifiers for the 2022 T20 World Cup. Hong Kong have lost out as a result, falling back into regional qualifying.
Hong Kong have suffered from the absence of a year of cricket, with the rankings calculated on the basis of results over a set period of time. With Hong Kong having a year of relatively favourable results wiped out, coupled with their loss of ODI status, they find themselves needing to battle an additional hurdle if they are to make it to the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022.
Singapore, meanwhile will play the global qualifier, after having previously advanced to the global qualifier for the first time in 2019 where they upset Scotland in the opening match of the tournament. Coupled with a victory over Zimbabwe ahead of the October 2019 qualifier, it has given their ranking a sharp spike to have them leapfrog their regional rival Hong Kong.
The 16 available spots in the global qualifiers will be filled by one team each from the Africa and East Asia-Pacific Qualifier respectively. They will be joined by two teams each from the Americas and Europe qualifiers. It will be the first time one of the competing teams – Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines, Samoa, South Korea, Vanuatu and host-nation Japan – at the 2021 regional qualifier from East-Asia Pacific gets to that stage. Papua New Guinea, the side that has regularly emerged from that section of regional qualifying, has already been granted a berth in the global qualifier after having secured a spot in the 2021 T20 World Cup field to be played in India.
The four teams that finish bottom at the T20 World Cup in 2021 will be granted automatic qualification to the global qualifier for the event in 2022, as will Zimbabwe, Nepal and the UAE along with Singapore, based on the T20 rankings. With the two upcoming T20 World Cups effectively switched around (the 2021 event takes place in India while the 2022 edition will be hosted by Australia), the teams that qualified for the 2020 World Cup in Australia will take their place at the 2021 event in India. Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Ireland, Namibia, Oman and Scotland will join ten Full Members at the World T20 in 2021, with Zimbabwe missing out as they were suspended by the ICC at the time.
The global qualifier had been a 14-team event in 2019 in the UAE. But the 16 teams that advance to the next global qualifier ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup will be split into two separate 8-team events. The top two finishes from the dual 8-team global qualifiers will secure their places in Australia. The host sites for each of the 8-team dual global qualifiers have yet to be determined.
