Canada will be playing in Group B of the Pepsi ICC Global Twenty20 Qualifier in July according to the schedule release today (May 14, 2015) by the ICC. Group B is being played in Scotland while Group A takes place in Ireland. Canada has two warm-up games scheduled, one against “a local side” on July 6 at The Grange, Edinburgh while the second warm-up game is against Namibia on July 7.
Canada’s games in Group B will be against Kenya (July 10), Oman (July 12), United Arab Emirates (July 14), Scotland (July 16), Netherlands (July 17) and Afghanistan (July 18).

The teams in Group A are Ireland, Nepal, Hong Kong, Jersey, Papua New Guinea, Namibia and USA.

The winners of each group will automatically qualify for the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 championship in India. Cross-over games will take place between the teams that finish second and third in each group, the winners of these games advance to the semi-finals of Qualifier to play against one of the group winners as well as qualifying for a trip to India in 2016. The losers of the cross-over games play on of the fourth placed teams from the Group standings which lead to a playoff game to decided fifth and sixth places in the Global Qualifier. The teams competing in the game for fifth place also advance to the World event in India next year.

So plan “A” for Canada will be to win Group B and with it capture an automatic spot in the World championships next year in India. The first fallback plan would be to come second or third in Group B then win the cross-over game against whatever team from Group A. The last line of attack on a berth in India would be to place fourth in Group B but win against whichever team that had placed second or third in round-robin group action but lost in cross-over play.

The release of the schedule follows the completion of the qualifying events, Jersey gained the last spot in the 14 team qualifier by winning European Division One yesterday. (EN based on ICC Media Release but with “added” Canadian content opinion)