[5] Scotland, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates were joined by the top four teams from the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament.

As a result, the Play-off tournament for them not only determined qualification for the World Cup, but also whether or not they would be relegated to the Challenge League.

On 13 March 2020, round 6, scheduled to take place in Lauderhill, Florida in April 2020, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions to the United States.

[28][29] On 24 March 2020, the ICC also confirmed that rounds 7 and 8, scheduled to take place in Namibia and Papua New Guinea respectively, had also been postponed.

[32] In February 2021, the ICC confirmed that (newly numbered) rounds 6, 7, and 8 of their updated schedule had also been postponed.

[35] However, only two matches were played before the remaining fixtures were postponed due to the discovery of a new variant of COVID-19 in Southern Africa.

[37] In April 2022, Papua New Guinea's home tri-series against Oman and Scotland (round 11) was played in the UAE.