Although this world cup seems an improvement upon the farce in the West Indies it is still lasting nigh on seven weeks.
However, the International Cricket Council’s drastic solution for the next world cup see’s the teams cut to ten which seems very harsh and would mean that some decent associate teams may miss out. Leaving the associate nations to instead focus upon Twenty/20 cricket in the world events that are held every two years.
So far in this world cup we have already seen Ireland shock a lethargic England side, Canada push Pakistan close, Ireland almost beat Bangladesh, Zimbabwe show they could at times match Australia and England nearly suffered further embarrassment against Holland. Is it right that the ICC is pushing these teams out?
Of course you have seen that Kenya have been constantly beaten easily so far and except for the recent Pakistan game Canada have been nowhere near the standard required. But would Ireland be here if there were only 10 nations in this world cup.
Kevin O’Briens brilliant 50 ball century typified this and when you have Netherlands also pushing England close with Ryan Ten Doeschate (above) hitting 100 you have to question whether the ICC have gone the wrong way about shortening the tournament.
A simple was to rectify the tournament would be having 12 teams with the three best associate teams as well as test playing nations with two groups of six and only the top two qualifying. To have quarter-finals in a world cup which contains just 14 teams is a bit silly when you would say that only 8 of the sides are of a decent standard.
To leave the associate teams out in future world cups could prove costly especially if teams such as Ireland continue to develop and provide shocks. Instead their best players like George Dockrell may follow Eoin Morgan to play for England. Perhaps a mistake was made by not offering Ireland test status.
Whatever happens in the years to come, people will remember O’Briens (above) fantastic innings as he went in with no hope for the Irish and led them to victory. Perhaps the ICC should look at this before tampering with the tournament yet again.
