World Cricket League: Suriname withdraw from Division Five tournament in Jersey

Suriname and Guernsey first played one another in the 2009 Division Seven tournament

Suriname have pulled out of May's World Cricket League Division Five tournament in Jersey after an inquiry into the eligibility of their players.

The South American country qualified for the event by winning the Division Six tournament in Essex last September, when they beat Guernsey in the final.

But the International Cricket Council launched an investigation after eligibility issues came to light.

They will be replaced by Vanuatu, who finished third in Division Six.

The World Cricket League is the ICC's one-day tournament for non Test-playing nations, which offers them the chance of qualifying for the World Cup.

"The Surinaamse Cricket Bond (SCB) has now accepted that it failed in its duty to ensure the provision of accurate residency information in respect of a number of players," the ICC said in a statement.

Suriname has also been relegated to the World Cricket League's Americas Division One and forfeited a $25,000 grant received for the tournament in Jersey, which takes place from 21 to 28 May.

"We were obviously disappointed by the shortcomings in the SCB's procedures that were revealed by our investigation," said Tim Anderson, the ICC's head of global development.

"There is inevitably an element of self-certification when it comes to determining compliance with the player eligibility regulations, and for this reason the wider cricketing community needs to be able to place the utmost trust in the accuracy of information submitted by other ICC members.

"We are, however, heartened by the action the SCB have taken in confronting the issues raised and look forward to working closely with them to ensure they can resume their participation in ICC competitions in 2017."

Nigeria, Tanzania and Oman will compete against Jersey, Guernsey and Vanuatu with the aim of winning promotion to Division Four of the World Cricket league.

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