Men's T20 World Cup 2021 qualifying process confirmed

The dozen sides who reach the Super 12 stage during the 2020 event will earn automatic passage, with the remaining berths determined by a series of regional and global tournaments

• Under-19 World Cup hub
• Global Game hub

The ICC have confirmed the details regarding the qualifying process for the T20 World Cup in India in 2021.

A second 20-over showcase tournament in as many years will take place as a replacement for the Champions Trophy, which was removed from the schedule.

Sixteen sides will again compete in the competition, with the dozen sides who reach the Super 12 stage during the 2020 edition in Australia earning automatic qualification.

Consequently, with their campaigns due to start at that stage later in the year Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan, England, India and South Africa are already assured of a spot.

They will be joined by the four sides who progress from the preliminary stage. Ireland, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka will contest Group A, while Group B includes Bangladesh, Namibia, Netherlands and Scotland.

Two eight-team qualifying events will then be staged between March and July 2021 to fill the remaining fourth berths, with two progressing from each global tournament.

Half of the sides will be made up of the four teams who fail to qualify from the first stage of this year's tournament, and the next best top four ranked teams Zimbabwe, Nepal, UAE and Hong Kong in the ICC standings.

The other eight will take their place via 11 region qualifying events held across Africa, Asia, East Asia Pacific, Americas and Europe. Kenya, Nigeria and Jersey are already assured of a place in the final of their respective regional events.

Head of Events Chris Tetley said: "The decision to replace the Champions Trophy with a T20 World Cup in 2021 was driven by our commitment to global growth and use T20 as our vehicle to do that. Of course that presented us with a one-off qualification challenge.

"Our regional and global qualification pathways have been established and consistently provide compelling and competitive cricket and we didn’t want to lose that despite the tight timelines available to us.

"We worked through a number of options together with Members and we’re all strongly in favour of this approach which allows for both global and regional competitions on the pathway to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021."