ICC Head of Media and Communications Sami Ul Hasan confirmed the Tigers' position in a return email to bdnews24.com on Monday night.For their annual ranking assessment, the governing council of world cricket considers points earned by a team in the last three seasons. The next update, due on May 2, will be derived from the results of seasons 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. All the points earned in the season leading to the cut-off date and half of the points earned in the two preceding terms will be brought into the equation. When the BCB chief was told Bangladesh were fifth in the board meeting in Dubai, it was the Tigers' current position in their battle for a direct berth in the 2019 World Cup where the top eight teams as per the rankings on Sep 30, 2017 will get a direct passage.On the cut-off date for top eight spots for the World Cup 2017, calendar years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 will be weighed while results from 2013-14 will be discarded. In light of the points earned in seasons 2014-15 and 2015-16, however, Bangladesh are actually fifth in the race. But with the 2016-17 season still to kick off, the position does not speak for the official rankings, neither is it a validation for a spot in the World Cup. The points Bangladesh earn in the approaching season will be all be added to their ranking before the cut-off date while the points from their prolific last season will get halved before being added up. So, Bangladesh's automatic qualification in the showcase event remains as challenging as ever.Hassan was just given an evaluation of Bangladesh's progress in the ICC meeting on Sunday.