Super League procedure explained

Cricket officials Monday explained procedure through which three teams will qualify for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa after the current six-team ICC Trophy Super League being played here.

A spokesman for the tournament said Monday: "Under the playing conditions in use for the 2001 ICC Trophy tournament, the teams which finished in the top three places in each of the two groups in Division One automatically qualified for the Super League phase of the event.

Namely, these sides are: Holland, Scotland, Canada, Denmark, Ireland and the USA." He said after Saturday's two playoff matches, they have been joined in this stage of the competition by Namibia and the United Arab Emirates.

"While it will involve a total of eight teams rather than six, the Super League section shares many similarities with the Super Six concept used in the 1999 World Cup in England," he explained.

It pits the best-performed teams in the earlier rounds of the tournament in direct competition with one another in order to determine which four teams progress to the finals of the tournament.

Each of the eight teams that move through to the Super League will carry forward the points and net run rates that they gained against the other sides that qualified from their group.

They then play four matches - against the four sides they have not yet met - and the results are tallied to produce a Super League table.

Having been the only side to reach the last eight from Division Two, Namibia inherits the points and net run rates that Bermuda - the team it beat in the playoff round - gained against the other sides that qualified from its group.

At the completion of the four days of Super League matches, the teams those finishing first and second on the table will contest the final and will both automatically qualify for the 2003 World Cup.

The sides those finishing third and fourth will meet in the qualifying final, and the winners of that match will also reserve themselves a place in World Cup 2003, the spokesman said.