Following the news that their journey will continue in 2027, despite having lost out to Jersey in the final of the sub-regional event in Cyprus earlier this summer, the Sarnians will go up against the Caesareans along with Scotland, Spain, Denmark and Portugal as each country looks to take another step towards the main event in Australia and New Zealand.
‘So six teams, a round robin and the top two, after everyone’s played each other once, in what is effectively a league, go through to the global qualifier. The last time that global qualifier took place was on Sky Sports and that was out in the UAE. So you’re just at an insane level then,’ said Guernsey senior men’s team manager Rob Thomson.
‘If you look at the rankings, Spain will come down quite a lot from where they are at the minute, so there’s us, Spain, Denmark and Portugal, you could almost throw a hat over the four at the minute. If anyone can beat the others then they’ve got a shot against Jersey or Scotland in a one-off game.
‘Jersey and Scotland will certainly fancy it, but I think it’s wide open. It’s going to be really exciting. It’s exactly the cricket we’ve been desperate to have.
‘We expect it’s going to be on grass at what it is really that middle level of European associate cricket.
‘It is just amazing for us – so happy.’
Thomson added that when Guernsey Cricket were informed that, following a review of the European qualification pathway by the ICC, they had been awarded a place in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier in 2027, it was ‘incredible’ news.
‘It was a huge surprise [on Wednesday] to get the notification.
'I think we’d kind of given up, the various lobbying that a number of us were doing earlier in the summer to try and be involved next year.
‘I know I’m very biased, but it’s absolutely the right outcome when you look at the six teams that are going to be fighting for those two spots.
‘It’s been a little bit messy, but equally from the ICC’s perspective, they reintroduced the global qualifier and they’ve had to retrospectively shuffle around a lot of the regions, so Europe’s just got caught up in that.
‘But I think for us, I would say it’s a deserved bit of good fortune. We’ve progressed massively over the last few years, we ran Jersey really close and I think that’s contributed towards the decision as well because we’ve shown how competitive we are.
‘We’re trending in the right direction, our ranking is really, really strong, so I think when they’ve looked at it on balance, they’ve thought rather than a four-team tournament, can we make it a six-team one? Will it be of sufficient quality?
‘I think we and also Spain, who narrowly missed out to Portugal, are proof that it absolutely will be.’
After finishing as runners-up in Cyprus, Thomson and the rest of the current Guernsey management team, including coach Jeremy Frith and captain Ollie Nightingale, were starting to prepare for their first non-tournament year.
When they came in, they won the sub-regional qualifier on home soil in 2024 which led to them playing in the Europe Final Qualifier in the Netherlands the following summer.
That pathway process for the 2028 World Cup started again this year, but nations who do not go forward from the sub-regionals would have a fallow 2027, so from going to trying to organise fixtures for the Island squad throughout next season, Thomson is now looking to arrange important warm-up games for the tournament.
‘It gives us something to focus on over the winter. We’ll wait and see where it’s going to be and exactly when it’s going to be, but there's a buzz around the guys – there’s huge excitement.
‘And it’s tournament cricket, there is nothing like it. We’ve played lots of T20Is and bilaterals over the last few years, and they’re great, but you get a tournament and you get the group together in those tournament settings and it’s fantastic.
‘Obviously representing Guernsey on that sort of stage is what the guys thrive on, so it’s incredibly exciting. It is still a bit surreal, a bit shocked by it because it has kind of fallen our way, but we’ll look to take advantage of that next summer really.
‘Now I’ll put on a programme to build up to that as soon as we know where it is and how that schedule will work.
'It's really exciting and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into all of that as soon as we know exactly what we’re doing.’
