London, Jun 28 (IANS): With the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 set to feature a record 20 teams, 28 European nations will kick-start the qualification series in three groups as part of the 'Sub-Regional Qualifiers' beginning later on Tuesday.
The emerging nations are battling to earn one of eight places to be decided in regional qualifiers around the globe.
The first European Sub-Regional Qualifiers (SRQ C) will be played in Belgium from Tuesday and feature eight teams -- Belgium, Denmark, Gibraltar, Hungary, Israel, Malta, Portugal and Spain. Spain (36) is best-placed among this group in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings, with Denmark (38), Belgium (43) and Portugal (46) all close behind as at 25 June.
The winner of the 'SRQ C' group will go on to face Germany, and the winner of the European 'SRQ A' and 'SRQ B' groups, in a Regional Final series in 2023.
The top two teams at the European Regional Final series will earn a place at the 2024 tournament alongside 12 automatically-qualifying teams made up of the USA and West Indies as the hosts in 2024; the top eight teams at the Men's T20 World Cup in Australia later this year; the next highest-ranked teams in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings as of November 14, 2022.
The other European Sub-Regional Qualifiers will be played in Finland and feature, 'SRQ A' -- Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Isle of Man, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey (starts July 12) and 'SRQ B' -- Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Guernsey, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland (starts July 24).
Full fixtures for each European Sub-Regional Qualifiers
SRQ C Matches: June 28 -- Malta v Spain; Belgium v Gibraltar; Israel v Portugal; Denmark v Hungary. June 29 -- Denmark v Gibraltar; Malta v Portugal; Belgium v Hungary; Israel v Spain. July 1 -- Gibraltar v Hungary; Portugal v Spain; Belgium v Denmark; Israel v Malta. July 4 - Final.
SRQ A Matches: July 12 -- Italy v Greece; Isle of Man v Cyprus; Sweden v Finland; Romania v Turkey. July 13 -- Cyprus v Romania; Croatia v Sweden; Serbia v Isle of Man; Finland v Italy. July 15 -- Italy v Sweden; Turkey v Serbia; Greece v Croatia; Romania v Isle of Man. July 16 -- Serbia v Romania; Greece v Finland; Turkey v Cyprus; Croatia v Italy. July 18 -- Sweden v Greece; Cyprus v Serbia; Finland v Croatia; Isle of Man v Turkey. July 19 - Final.
SRQ B Matches: July 24 -- Austria v Luxembourg; Norway v Estonia; Guernsey v Bulgaria; France v Czech Republic. July 25 -- Czech Republic v Norway; Slovenia v Austria; Switzerland v France; Luxembourg v Guernsey. July 27 -- Guernsey v Austria; Estonia v Switzerland; Bulgaria v Slovenia; Norway v France. July 28 -- Switzerland v Norway; Bulgaria v Luxembourg; Estonia v Czech Republic; Slovenia v Guernsey. July 30 -- Austria v Bulgaria; Czech Republic v Switzerland; Luxembourg v Slovenia; France v Estonia. July 31 - Final.