Jersey cricket board chief executive Sarah Gomarsall has called for a fairer distribution of qualifying places for the ICC T20 World Cup, after the island side narrowly missed out on a spot at next year’s tournament.

Jersey finished third in the European Qualifier (Regional final) that was held earlier this year, with Netherlands and Italy claiming the two available spots for the 2026 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

Their path to the regional final came after topping Sub-Regional Qualifier B held in Germany in July 2024. The tournament was a 10-team event, with teams divided into two groups. Jersey and Norway advanced to the final after finishing first in their respective groups, with Jersey winning the final by six wickets to progress to the European stage.

Similarly, Guernsey and Italy progress to the Regional Finals after winning the Sub-regional tournaments, whilst Scotland and Netherlands received direct entry on the virtue of playing the 2024 T20 World Cup, thereby rounding off the five teams that would participate in the European Qualifiers.

Jersey played in a five-team round-robin format with two sides with best record going through to the main event in India and Sri Lanka in 2026.

Gomarsall expressed displeasure at the qualifying process and wanted more consistency in the qualifying process.

Speaking to BBC Radio Jersey, Gomarsall said, “Europe is made up of 33 cricketing nations, and we only have two spots available to go to the World Cup.”

She added, “Two (spots) between 33 countries is not enough, so it's talking to them about that, and trying to get more qualification spots.”

Jersey beat Scotland and Guernsey after narrowly losing to the Netherlands and having their game with Italy rained off missing out on qualification on net run rate.

Europe’s allocation remains the lowest proportion of qualifying places across all regions, with other continents such as Asia and East Asia Pacific afforded more spots and additional tournament rounds to decide qualification.