The International Cricket Council on Monday officially launched the inaugural ICC Men’s World Cup Super League that aims to add context to the ODI format.

It finally begins on Thursday when England and Ireland face each other in the first ODI of a three-match series in Southampton.

Comprising 13 teams — the top 12 and the Netherlands (who qualified by winning the ICC World Cricket Super League 2015-17) — the league will see each side play four home and four away three-match ODI series in a fixed timeframe, with the top 7 sides and hosts India earning automatic qualification for the next 50-over World Cup scheduled in October-November 2023.

Each team gets 10 points for a win, five for a tie, no result or abandonment and none for a loss. The five sides failing to qualify directly will play along with five associate nations in the World Cup Qualifier 2023, with two teams from the Qualifier making it to the 10-team World Cup.

Ireland are confident of taking on the world champions, who will be without some of their ace players like Ben Stokes and Joe Root. “Yes, the England team will be a bit inexperienced, but anything can happen. So there’s no reason why we can’t go out there and beat the world champions in their own backyard,” captain Andrew Balbirnie had said.

“It’s nice to be starting our journey for the next edition of the tournament,” England skipper Eoin Morgan said.

WTC final

The World Test Championship (WTC) schedule has been thrown haywire by the pandemic and its final next year will depend on the number of rescheduled bilateral series after the disruption, ICC general manager (cricket operations) Geoff Allardice said.