Monday, April 11, 2011

WTH is ICC thinking or is it at all ?

Since the moment ICC has announced its decision to make the CWC 2015 a 10 team event with only the full members being part of it, there has been a lot of condemnation of the decision around the cricketing world and very rightly so. The decision came just after the conclusion of CWC 2011 in which Ireland put up such a spirited performance and showed the world what they are capable of and also produced arguably the match of the tournamanet.
I think ICC took a wonderful decision by making the WC 2015 a 10 team event. It will definitley improve the quality of matches played throughout the tournament, ensuring the intensity throughout the tournament as the format will make each and every match very important.
The bad thing about their decision is not that the WC will be a 10 team event but that they have provided absolutely no chance to the non-test playing nations to qualify for the tournament. Thus they have converted a good decision to an absolutely ridiculous one to say the least by shutting out the World from the World Cup.
There has been a consderable progress made by a few associate nations, specially Ireland where they now have cricketers playing the sport professionally. They have done well in the last 2 WCs. They have put in a lot of effort and this decision will surely dampen their spirits.
Ideally this is what ICC should have done:
Reserve spots for the top 8 test playing nations (say excluding Zim and Bang) and have a qualifying tournament for remaining 2 spots.
The qualifying tournament should include the bottom 2 test playing nations say Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and the top 6 associate/affiliate nations say Ireland, Netherlands, Kenya, Scotland, Canada and Afghanistan. It should be a league format tournament in which everyone plays everyone and the top 2 teams qualify. It would ensure that the process remains fair and no one-off good or bad game affects the outcome.
It would provide an opportunity for the non-test-playing nations to qualify and prove their mettle. Also it will give an opportunity to the bottom 2 test playing nations to prove a point or two that they are a cut above the associate/affiliate teams as they think of themselves.
We don’t have any clue as to what prompted the ICC to make this blind decision but we can only hope that they reconsider it and provide a fair opportunity to all to qualify.
Let some sense prevail.
DieHard Cricket Fans

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