West Indies seeking World Cup berth

West Indies will seek to avoid the infamy of becoming the first World Cup winner to miss qualification for cricket's showpiece event when they take part in a decisive qualifying tournament, starting on Sunday.

The recent slide of the Windies, World Cup winners in 1975 and 1979, means they missed automatic qualification for the 2019 tournament, to be held in the UK.

Jason Holder's side will instead have to advance to the main 50-over event by getting through a 10-team, three-week World Cup Qualifier tournament in Zimbabwe where they'll battle the likes of Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Nepal for the two remaining vacancies.

The once unthinkable prospect of the Windies not being a part of the World Cup became a very real possibility last year when they missed the ICC Champions Trophy, which featured the world's top-eight teams.

The Windies are rightly among the favourites to qualify over the coming weeks, but it will nonetheless be a nervous few weeks for fans of cricket in the Caribbean.

"It's a situation where I think the boys have no choice, we have to pull it through," former skipper Brian Lara told Fairfax this week.

"We were out of that place (automatically qualifying) so we have to qualify. But it doesn't mean we can't get there – we have to get there."

An ICC rule change following the 2015 World Cup reduced the tournament to just 10 teams, and hosts England were joined by the top seven-ranked teams at the September 2017 cut-off date to automatically qualify for the 2019 event.

The remaining four teams in the ICC ODI Championship – Test-playing nations Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland and the Windies – have been forced into the Qualifier event, where they will be joined by the Netherlands, Scotland, Hong Kong, PNG, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates, with the top two teams to qualify for the event proper.

It means that for the very first time, at least two Test playing nations will not feature in the World Cup.

The 10 teams have been split into two groups of five, with each side to play the others once during the group stage. The top three from each group will advance to the Super Sixes.

As has been the case in previous World Cups, the results between the progressing teams will be carried forward into the Super Sixes stage and each team will play the qualifiers from the other group once.

The top two teams after the Super Six stage will then face off in the final and, more importantly, secure qualification for the 2019 event.

While legendary opener Chris Gayle and fellow veteran Marlon Samuels have been named in the Windies' squad, the likes of Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Samuel Badree, Sunil Narine and Lendl Simmons won't take part as the public dispute between national selectors and some of the Caribbean's best players continues.

2018 ICC WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

GROUP A: Ireland, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, United Arab Emirates, West Indies

GROUP B: Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Nepal, Scotland, Zimbabwe

SQUADS

AFGHANISTAN: Asghar Stanikzai (c), Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Ihsanullah Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad, Nasir Jamal, Javed Ahmadi, Mujeeb Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Rashid Khan, Samiullah Shinwari, Shahpoor Zadran, Sharafuddin Ashraf.

HONG KONG: Babar Hayat (c), Ahsan Abbasi, Nadeem Ahmed, Tanveer Ahmed, Tanwir Afzal, Waqas Barkat, Chris Carter, Aizaz Khan, Ehsan Khan, Ehsan Nawaz, Nizakat Khan, Scott McKechnie, Anshuman Rath, Simandeep Singh, Shahid Wasif.

IRELAND: William Porterfield (c), Andrew Balbirnie, Peter Chase, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien, Boyd Rankin, James Shannon, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Gary Wilson

THE NETHERLANDS: Peter Borren (c), Wesley Barresi, Ben Cooper, Scott Edwards, Vivian Kingma, Frederick Klaassen, Bas de Leede, Maxwell O'Dowd, Pieter Seelaar, Shane Snater, Ryan ten Doeschate, Timm van der Gugten, Roelof van der Merwe, Paul van Meekeren, Sikander Zulfiqar.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Assadollah Vala (c), Charles Amini, Sese Bau, Mahuru Dai, Kiplin Doriga, Jason Kila, Vani Morea, Alei Nao, Damien Ravu, John Reva, Lega Siaka, Chad Soper, Tony Ura, Norman Vanua, Jack Vare.

SCOTLAND: Kyle Coetzer (c), Richie Berrington,  Matthew Cross, Ali Evans, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Calum MacLeod, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Chris Sole, Tom Sole, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt, Brad Wheal, Stuart Whittingham.

WEST INDIES: Jason Holder (c), Devendra Bishoo, Carlos Brathwaite, Sheldon Cottrell, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Evin Lewis, Nikita Miller, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse, Rovman Powell, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Kesrick Williams.

ZIMBABWE: Graeme Cremer (c), Ryan Burl, Tendai Chatara, Tendai Chisoro, Craig Ervine, Kyle Jarvis, Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire, Peter Moor, Tarisai Musakanda, Blessing Muzarabani, Sikandar Raza, Brendan Taylor, Brian Vitori, Malcolm Waller.