Who benefits from T20 World Cup expansion?

Canada (Americas)

To date, no Americas associate has qualifier for a T20 World Cup. But with USA qualifying as hosts, and one guaranteed from the Americas qualifier, two nations from the region will make their debut at the 2024 event, giving the tournament a uniquely American flavour.

The likely beneficiaries of this expansion are Canada. With the USA not participating in the qualifiers, the Canadians have an almost clear path to the World Cup, being the strongest remaining team on paper in their region.

Canada have automatically advanced to the Americas regional final, with three other teams advancing from the subregional. Their greatest challenger is likely to be Bermuda, who host the regional finals. Despite both reaching the 2019 T20 Global Qualifier and playing in the 2019-22 Challenge Leagues, the two teams have been at very different levels in recent times. Bermuda failed to win a game in their Challenge League group, whilst Canada lost one out of 15. Bermuda also failed to advance from the regional final for the 2022 T20 World Cup, losing to both Canada and the USA.

At the same time, Canada have shown themselves more than worth of their top twenty ranking, recently defeating Oman and Bahrain in the Desert T20 Cup. Although they fell short at the 2022 Global Qualifier A with a fifth place finish, the Canadians have since proved themselves competitive enough to earn a place on the big stage.