The six squads which gather in Kuala Lumpur this weekend for the World Cricket League Division 4 tournament will do so knowing that the two top sides will still have an outside chance of becoming one of the four qualifiers for the 2015 World Cup.

In the ICC's intricate qualifying process, two teams will qualify direct from the round-robin, eight-team WCL Championship, while two more will come from a qualifying tournament in 2014 which will include the top two from next year's Division 3 event in Bermuda.

So success in Malaysia followed by more in Division 3 could take a side all the way to New Zealand, where the qualifying tournament will be held.

Two of the squads taking part in next week's competition – Denmark and the USA – have recent experience of Division 3, having been relegated the last time such a tournament was held, in Hong Kong in 2011.

Denmark, who are again captained by Michael Pedersen, have made five changes from their squad at their last international outing, the World Twenty20 qualifier in the UAE earlier this year, and their side will also differ significantly from that which struggled in Hong Kong.

But the core of the side, especially in the batting, remains the same, with Michael Pedersen, his elder brother Carsten, and Fred Klokker the mainstays of the top order. There is a return for Henrik Hansen, who is likely to share the new ball with Sair Anjum, while a varied spin attack will feature off-spinner Bashir Shah and leg-spinner Bobby Chawla, as well as Michael Pedersen's own off-breaks.

Two interesting additions to the side are slow left-armers Andreas Lambert, who turns 31 the day before the tournament starts and who has not played for the full side since 2003, and Lejf Slebsager, who is 46 and whose last tournament with Denmark was the 2001 ICC Trophy. At the other extreme, the squad also includes young batting talent in the persons of Shehzad Ahmed and Hamid Shah.

Steve Massiah, who missed the T20 qualifier in March, returns to the captaincy of the American side, and his batting skills will reinforce a line-up which also includes the experience of Sushil Nadkarni, Rashard Marshall and Aditya Thyagaran, as well as the rising talents of Ryan Corns, Steven Taylor and Abhimanyu Rajp. Another batsman to watch will be Akeem Dobson, who last appeared for the United States in the 2009 West Indies domestic one-day series.

The seam attack will be led by Timroy Allen, Orlando Baker and Usman Shuja, but the Americans' leading wicket-taker from Hong Kong, Kevin Darlington, will be absent and their chances of containing their opponents may rely to a great degree on the spinners, who include Massiah and Muhammad Ghous.

Radically different approaches have been adopted by the two sides which finished third and fourth the last time Division 4 was contested, in Italy in 2010.

Nepal have retained eleven of that squad, the newcomers being Prithu Baskota, Subash Khakurel and Chandra Sawad, while Tanzania have opted for significant changes, bringing in no fewer than seven players who will be making their WCL debut.

The Nepalese have made steady progress in recent years, and there were signs in the UAE in March that their batting, led by captain Paras Khadka, was at last beginning to achieve a degree of reliability to match that of their always-impressive attack.

The seam attack will again be spearheaded by left-armer Amrit Bhattarai, backed up by Binod Das and Khadha himself, but Nepal is another side with an effective and varied spin department. Leg-spinner Shakti Gauchan was one of the outstanding personalities of the T20 qualifier, but Khadka can also call on the left-arm spin of Basanta Regmi and Rahul Vishvakarma and the off-breaks of Sanjam Regmi.

Still only 24, allrounder Hamisi Abdallah is once more captain of a Tanzanian side which includes plenty of new faces. Experience will also be provided by seamer Khalil Rehmtullah, wicketkeepers Issa Kikasi and Rizki Kiseto, and allrounder Ally Kimote, one of four players who were in Tanzania's squad in the 2010 African Under-19 championships.

Others to watch will include the captain of that under-19 side, opening batsman Zamayoni Jabeneke, and top-order batsman Tambwe Juma.

Having gained promotion from the Division 5 tournament in Singapore in February, Singapore and Malaysia have unsurprisingly stuck with the core of the squads which earned them their places here.

Saad Janjua leads a Singaporean side which is strong in batting, featuring Chaminda Kumarage – who hit three half-centuries in that Division 5 competition – Anish Paraam and Chetan Suryawanshi.

But the bowling is also effective, with medium-pacer Shoaib Razzak their leading wicket-taker last time with 15 wickets at 9.87, and Janjua himself, slow left-armer Abhiraj Singh and seamer Amjad Mahboob all making important contributions.

Malaysia will, of course, enjoy home advantage, and under Suhan Alagaratnam's leadership they will be looking to consolidate their progress and ensure they are among the contenders for further promotion.

They key players are likely to be opening batsmen Shafiq Sharif and Rakesh Madhavan, and medium-pacers Suresh Navaratnam and Hiran Ralalage, with Alagaratnam's spin options including the leg breaks of Ahmed Faiz and the off spin of Suharril Fetri.