On 28th June, what thousands of fans were hoping for and for months and they finally got it. They worked hard, protested an unfair decision and finally the mighty colonial style ICC heard them and in a rare way overturned its decision of a 10 nation 2015 World Cup to a 14 nation World Cup.
This opens up the hopes of millions of people in Ireland, Kenya, Afghanistan, Netherlands, Nepal and many other nations. There is now a clear cut path defined for them to have a chance to reach the cricket's biggest spectacle.
However all was not good news. The 2019 WC will be reduced to a 10 nation World Cup with ODI ranking used for top 8 teams to directly qualify while spots will be done through qualifier. How ICC has predicted that 8 years from now cricket still have 8 good teams or have only 10 test teams.
Then in another classic ICC style reversal the 2012 and 2014 World T20 was reduced from 16 to 12. The ICC had earlier defined this format as the driver to expand cricket in new markets and the qualification tournament for 2012 World T20 has already started!!!! But this is ICC.
Most of the fans were happy that the associates are back as they don't want the likes of Ireland to miss the world cup. Ireland surely are favorite of many people now. But the fans are not happy with 14 teams. According to them it is 2 teams too many. Also fans are also not happy that all 10 test nations are guaranteed and automatic entry. Fans clearly wanted only the top 8 teams to qualify and the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to come through a qualification tournament.
To sum up most fans would have been happy with a 12 team WC with 8 direct entries and bottom 2 test nations playing a qualifying tournament with top 6 associates to fill the final 4 spots. I agree with this format but for me the 16 teams 4 pool and followed by QF, SF and Finals. Simple short and involves many teams.
The race begins for many fans across the world to have their teams in the 2015 World Cup. My personal wish list is Ireland, Kenya, Nepal and Afghanistan.
This opens up the hopes of millions of people in Ireland, Kenya, Afghanistan, Netherlands, Nepal and many other nations. There is now a clear cut path defined for them to have a chance to reach the cricket's biggest spectacle.
However all was not good news. The 2019 WC will be reduced to a 10 nation World Cup with ODI ranking used for top 8 teams to directly qualify while spots will be done through qualifier. How ICC has predicted that 8 years from now cricket still have 8 good teams or have only 10 test teams.
Then in another classic ICC style reversal the 2012 and 2014 World T20 was reduced from 16 to 12. The ICC had earlier defined this format as the driver to expand cricket in new markets and the qualification tournament for 2012 World T20 has already started!!!! But this is ICC.
Most of the fans were happy that the associates are back as they don't want the likes of Ireland to miss the world cup. Ireland surely are favorite of many people now. But the fans are not happy with 14 teams. According to them it is 2 teams too many. Also fans are also not happy that all 10 test nations are guaranteed and automatic entry. Fans clearly wanted only the top 8 teams to qualify and the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to come through a qualification tournament.
To sum up most fans would have been happy with a 12 team WC with 8 direct entries and bottom 2 test nations playing a qualifying tournament with top 6 associates to fill the final 4 spots. I agree with this format but for me the 16 teams 4 pool and followed by QF, SF and Finals. Simple short and involves many teams.
The race begins for many fans across the world to have their teams in the 2015 World Cup. My personal wish list is Ireland, Kenya, Nepal and Afghanistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment