West Indies will have to take a longer route to reach the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027 after missing out on automatic qualification. The team will now have to play in the Qualifier tournament.
The two-time world champions are currently ranked 10th in the ICC ODI rankings. They cannot move into the automatic qualification spots before the Sept. 30, 2026, deadline, even though they still have two matches against India to play.
Under the qualification rules, the top eight teams in the ODI rankings as of Sept. 30, excluding hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe, will qualify directly for the 2027 World Cup.
Afghanistan became the latest team to secure automatic qualification after beating Ireland in an exciting match in Belfast.
They will join defending champions Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, England and Bangladesh, which have already secured their places. Hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe will also qualify automatically, while Namibia, the third co-host, will take part in the tournament as well.
The West Indies will now have to go through the Qualifier, which is scheduled for February 2027.
Their remaining two ODIs against India will not be enough to improve their ranking sufficiently to secure an automatic place.
The situation brings back memories of the 2023 World Cup qualification campaign, when the West Indies also failed to qualify directly.
They then played in the Qualifier in Zimbabwe but finished fifth in the Super Six stage and failed to reach the World Cup.
It was the first time the West Indies had missed an ODI World Cup. The team had played in every edition since the tournament began in 1975 and won the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979.
Their failure to qualify for the 2023 World Cup also meant they missed the 2025 Champions Trophy, ending a run of appearances in the tournament that had continued since 2013.
