As soon as Sri Lanka lost their fourth straight match against India at R. Premdasa yesterday, ICC released a press release mentioning ” Sri Lanka fails to seal ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 direct qualification.”
Needless to say, it was a big blunder and ‘irresponsible act’ by the global governing body of the game, as Sri Lanka are not yet out of the race for a direct qualification.
1st Scenario
If Sri Lanka wins the last match of the series on Sunday, they will reach 80 points on the points table, but that will not be enough to ensure an automatic qualification.
In this scenario, west Indies will have to win all it’s upcoming six matches – one against Ireland on 13 September and all ODIs of a five-match series against England from 19 to 29 September.
2nd Scenario
If Sri Lanka loses the series 5-0 against India, then West Indies will have to win either all five matches against England or will have to win the match against Ireland and series against England 4-1
That shows, Sri Lanka are not yet entirety failed to qualify for the 2019 world cup. Though, they are dependent on west Indies Now, but not out of the race, yet.
Though, ICC mentioned those scenarios inside the story, but as there is an old adage ‘first impression is the last impression’ they messed up time with their heading. That’s why, heading of the ICC press release should have been :
“Sri Lanka depends on west Indies for world cup qualification after 4–0 loss to India”
