European Cricket League (ECL) 2021 has been confirmed, to be played out from the 30th May to June 6th, in essentially a year push-back.

Given the circumstances of coronavirus and the cancellation of ECL 20, qualification for the 2021 tournament has become precarious, though the league has put in place a contingency plan in case domestic cricket is played at all this year.

For countries within the ECL, if a domestic champion is not crowned in 2020 (for the 2021 tournament), the team who qualified for the 2020 ECL will gain automatic qualification.

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For example, if there is no national domestic champion in Sweden for 2020, Lund CC, 2019 champions, will keep their spot at ECL 2021.

Though to maintain fairness for teams who qualified for ECL 20 and other teams vying for a domestic place, national boards have been given two options if a new, 2020 champion is crowned.

IF a different domestic champion is crowned in 2020 to 2019, the national board can either give the new champion the ECL 2021 spot, or hold a playoff between 2019 and 2020 champions to determine who gets the place.

Weston confirmed the news to Michael McCann on the competition’s Instagram live video, adding that the league will recommend the playoff option if there are different domestic champions in 2019 and 2020.

The Netherlands’ VOC Rotterdam won the inaugural ECL in July last year, beating Germany’s SG Findorff by 93 runs.

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