USA had participated in every ICC Trophy tournament – the original name of the World Cup Qualifier – since its inception in 1979 all the way through to 2005. But following the 2005 edition, the USA Cricket Association (USACA) was suspended by the ICC for the first of three times over administrative issues.
As part of the suspension, USA received a severe penalty being dropped down to Division Five of the newly formed World Cricket League, whereas the lowest position that any other team from the 2005 ICC Trophy wound up being reclassified into was WCL Division Three. It has taken USA 18 years to climb back up the Associate ladder, suspended twice more along the way and
eventually expelled in 2017 before being readmitted as an Associate member of the ICC in 2019 under the new banner of USA Cricket. They secured ODI status in Namibia later that year.
Aside from USA and UAE, the other Associate teams in the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe are Scotland, Oman and Nepal, who each qualified via a top-three finish in the World Cup League Two ODI competition which ran from 2019 through 2023. They will be joined by bottom five teams in the ODI Super League: Netherlands, Zimbabwe, West Indies, Sri Lanka and one of either South Africa or Ireland.
South Africa currently sit in eighth place, but Ireland still have three ODIs remaining against Bangladesh scheduled for May. Should Ireland win all three, they would be level with South Africa on points in which case net run rate would serve as the tiebreaker to decide which team clinches an automatic berth to the 2023 World Cup and which team falls back into the qualifier in Zimbabwe.