A dark day for Associates

ICC News: 10 teams for next two World Cups

The next two editions of 50-over World Cup will be competed by only 10 teams. It was decided in a meeting of ICC's Executive Committee in Mumbai today. The 2015 event will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and the 2019 World Cup will be played in England.

The next tournament will have top ten full members of ICC in action while from 2019 onwards the 10 teams will be decided through a qualification process, the details of which are still under deliberation. It may be that bottom two places would be decided through a preliminary competition. The tournaments after the 2019 edition will be based on a proposed relegation-promotion system under an expected ODI league system.

In order to minimize the impact of the decision and limit the expected 'damage' the ICC has decided to increase the number of teams for the World T20 to 16.But the Affiliates and Associates seem not to budge at all.

The reaction, so far, from the Associate members shows their unhappiness on the ICC decision. Cricket Ireland's chief, Warren Deutrom, reacted by saying: "It's nothing short of outrageous." He further said: ""And after such a terrific event, and the wonderful occasion of the final, where the sport was incredible and regarded in such glowing terms around the world, I'm afraid this is an absolute black day for the sport. It's a genuinely awful decision that has been reached."

Irish captain William Porterfield's too was furious. Porterfield told Press Association Sport: "It's an absolute disgrace and I don't know how they can even comprehend doing this. I don't know what else we had to do in the World Cup, we held our own against the full members, we beat England, we got the fastest ever hundred. For them to turn around and throw that back in our face a few weeks later is an absolute joke."

"We are currently ranked 10th, ahead of Zimbabwe, and there is no reason we can't move up another position, if not two, by the next World Cup. Instead, the door has been closed in our face. It is an embarrassment." He said. "This could mean the death of cricket in a lot of countries." Porterfield warned.

ICC is still to decide to the format but Haroon Lorgat, ICC's Chief Executive, has hinted that it may involve all teams playing each other in a round-robin league, like the most successful tournaments of all in 1992.

The latest development has not come as a surprise but the timing has been poor. Just when the world was basking in the glory of the sport, ICC had created an unnecessary fuss. The decision could have been deferred until a suitable time and it would have been better for the ICC to have consulted with the [parties affected, the Affiliates and the Associates.

The 10-team format may look more competitive but it contradicts ICC's campaign to globalize the game. A 12-team event would have been more suitable a better compromise.

ICC is fast growing into an organization which keeps earning money as its prime objective rather than developing and promoting the game itself. With only 10 teams, it would hardly be called a 'World' Cup.