A case of Parachuted funding for relegated Associates

On 14th April 2011, Uganda played a match against PNG and lost it by 1 run. What was critical about this match was that a win or tie would have made Uganda stay in Division 2 but this loss relegated them to Division 3 of World Cricket League. But this was not the critical part. The critical aspect was due to relegation into Div 3 Uganda no longer was part of ICC High Performance Program. Due to this there was a major cut in the funding for Uganda by the ICC. This first major effect was that the board was no longer able to give central contracts and the players lost out

A loss of ODI status can mean the players losing their central contracts for Kenya

Uganda are not the only case. Seeing the present level of performance Canada, Kenya might be on the verge of losing their ODI status and in return a major cut in funding. The cut is funding can be as high as 80% giving a sudden shock to the boards

Funding related to performance is not a unique feature in cricket. Infact most of the games also follow the performance related funding. In soccer the teams in premier division get more funding than those is the second division. Performance related funding pushes the team to reach higher performance level and for the teams at a higher level it pushes them to stay there and not relegate not to lose funding. This helps the game to increase the level of performance

However in most of the sports there is always a parachuted funding for teams which are relegated to lower levels. Parachuted funding means that there would not be drastic and sudden cuts, rather the cuts would be gradual. This is important so that it does not have a shock effect, rather allows team to settle down in a gradual manner. This in anyway does not mean the team will be sitting comfortably but there is a loss of funding.

So a Parachuted Funding would mean that Kenya if they lose ODI status this time the funding will not drop from 500,000$ to 100,000$ in straight one year, rather it might go to 350,000$ in first year, 215,000$ in Second year and then to 100,000$. This will mean that all the hard work put at ground level will not be washed away in 1 year and the board might strive for alternate resources but never allowing the team and board to be in comfort zone.

In a rapidly changing times for ICC, hopefully they will notice this very important requirement and act on it and not bring a case where a loss of 1 run means whole team losing their jobs.

Time to bring back ICC Knockout

In 1998 ICC came out with a brilliant tournament. It was to be hosted in a upcoming cricket country, give chance to few ODI nations to play in that and in a high octane knock out format, where is you miss the opposition hits. The tournament got a brilliant response from the first tournament in Bangladesh. The second tournament was even more exciting and the Indians defeating the favorites Australia and South Africa lost to Kiwis in the finals. However from 2002 ICC went for a change of format and removed the knock out format with a league system though small in size greatly increasing the number of matches.

Over time the pressure of time forced the tournament to be cut to just 8 teams making it a pointless tournament killing the purpose it was created for. This year in a complete change of tournament structuring, ICC Champions Trophy has been struck off now replacing it with the required ICC Test Championship. They also reduced the World T20 from 2 to 1 in 4 years. This now leads ICC to 3 tournaments in 4 years leaving 1 slot free.

How the proposed ICC format will look using the present ODI rankings. A short and interesting tournament

Cricket really needs to get aggressive and spread it to new markets. ICC Knockout is one of the exact tournament which is one size suits all though in small doses. Being a short tournament it can be easily fit in the FTP, it can be easily hosted in upcoming countries and the upcoming countries can get a chance to compete against Test Teams outside the World Cup and finally the format will keep everybody interested in the tournament. Even if the major teams loses early the tournament is short enough for ICC not to worry it will be dragged on.

Since 2007 ICC based on performance gives ODI status to 6 Associate teams. ICC Knockout gives us a good chance to make it a 16 team tournament with 10 Test Nations and 6 ODI Status Nations. To help spread the game ICC should host it in a upcoming country. It will help to take the game to non traditional markets.

The ICC is also going for reduction of World Cup from 2019 reducing it 10 nations. This leaves with a real possibility of Associate member left high and dry from ODI form of game and reduced to just playing T20 against full members. This is very counterproductive and hence becomes even more important for ICC to reintroduce the tournament.

I hope some good sense prevails in the ICC and we see it reintroduced it from 2018.

East Africa's brilliant cricket Experiment

This world cup was a disaster for Kenya. From the highs of reaching the World Cup semi finals in 2003 to losing all matches "Badly" in the 2011 world cup was a real shake up. Over that came the news that team had many internal divisions. The World Cup in 2011 could simply be called a disaster for Kenya.

The problems were many. Cricket in Kenya was limited to few elite clubs in Nairobi and may be to some extent in the Rift Valley. The extent of Elitism was that Kenyan National team had no national ground it could practice on. They had to rent it from the Gymkhana Club. The game never actually reached the common man and this made an issue of a limited pool. This lead to Kenya being dependent on same set of players who started demanding salaries beyond their capability levels. This lead to player strikes, group-ism and all sort of problem. This was a dangerous cycle

Then the head of Cricket Kenya as part of complete shake up of besides other measures has initiated a process which I hope will bring many positive results. Cricket Kenya immediately after the world cup announced a 6 team franchise league both for OD and T20 format. Initially criticized for 6 teams as too many was silenced when it was announced that 4 teams are from Kenya and rest 2 from Uganda. This meant that the pool of players will be playing highly competitive domestic cricket besides the very few matches they get as international exposure. 6 teams across 2 countries meant that the pool of players is also optimally utilized.

The best thing of the league is that it involves 2 countries. This means that cricket Kenya have a better proposition to take in front of the Sponsors. This also means that this will bring in much wider interest in the league. It is also a replication of a similar successful effort in Rugby in which teams from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania play in one league. This also means that a chance to bring in more foreign players and more exposure.The results have been encouraging. Super Sport has agreed to telecast the final live besides providing regular updates for matches. One of the team already has a sponsor and hopefully many will follow

Over time I feel that this league should be extended beyond these 2 countries. Tanzania, Rwanda should be definitely added. If possible then Burundi and Zambia should also be added. Lets us give this league 2 years to stabilize and after that the final composition may look like Kenya- 4 teams, Uganda- 3 Teams, Tanzania 2 Teams, Rwanda, Zambia and Burundi:- 1 team each. If resources allow then Home and Away for all 12 teams else 2 pools of 6 is the next best option.

Again if successful similar experiments should be replicated in Ire+Scot, Neth+Belg+France, USA+Canada, UAE+Oman, Malaysia+Singapore and many more places. Lets hope this series comes out as a huge success and can be replicated around.

How many teams should be there in the Cricket World Cup (2015)

How many teams should play the cricket world cup? What should be the format of cricket world cup? Do the minnows gain anything from playing in the World Cup? Should cricket be worried about mismatches when other sports don't seem to worry about it?

These are the many question that come into mind when anyone thinks of the format of Cricket World Cup. Where should cricket look upto and work on the format. So many formats have been tried but the perfect solution doesn't seem to be there. Since 1992 World Cup there have been a different format for each world cup starting from a 9 nation 1992 WC, reaching a peak in 2007 with 16 teams and then reducing by 2 teams to 14 in 2011 WC. Now the most disgusting thing is being discussed - the 10 Nation World Cup. Not only does it sound disgusting, it is against the whole concept of ICC working on expansion of the game.

To look for the right number of teams in the World Cup (First we decide on Number of Teams and then format will be based on number of teams). The sports I have picked up are all field sports with large field sizes so that helps in normalizing many factors. The sports picked are- Football, Baseball, Hockey and Rugby.

The strength of each sport and its spread can be determined by number of countries that have won the world cup and number of teams that have reached the semifinals. Based on these ratio I will work the whole calculations.

But before going ahead with the calculations we should remember these formats

• Cricket World Cup matches takes much higher amount of Time hence we have to go little conservative
• There are 3 formats of Cricket-ODI, T20 and Tests
• The other 2 formats also have / will have a World Championship - ICC World T20 & soon to come Test Championship
• For the T20 we show match the most aggressive sport
• For Test Championship, since more time, less chance of any upsets we simply should be very conservative in number of teams

Working on the number of teams in world cup and number of winners and semifinalist the following table has

been prepared

Game	WC  Size	Top 4   Finisher	Winners	Finalist	Semi Finalists	WC Size to Winner Ratio	WC Size to Top 4 Finishers Ratio	CWC  Size	CWC  Size
Football	32	24	8	4	12	4	1.33	20	12
Rugby	20	8	4	1	3	5	2.50	25	23
Baseball	16	16	8	5	3	2	1.00	10	9
Hockey	12	11	5	2	4	2.4	1.09	12	10
Cricket		9	5	1	3

 The 3rd column shows the present number of teams in the World Cup.The 4th Column shows the number of countries that finished in Top 4 or the Semi Finalists and next column shows number of countries that have won the world cup

It is known football or soccer is the most popular gamer around the world. As we can see from the table it is quite competitive. Though just 8 teams have won the world cup but 24 teams have reached the top 4. It shows it is not a closely guarded game in some nations rather very global.

While the other games are quite limited to some countries. Rugby has 8 teams which made to Semi Finals and 4 have won the cup. So as compared to football which has a ratio of 3:1 for Semi Finalists to Winner, the other games have a ratio of around 2. Cricket has even worse a ratio of 1.8.

Now we see the ratio of Total Teams in the World Cup to the total winner. Here we see Rugby is really aggressive. It has the highest ratio of 5:1. This is evident from the fact that Rugby has been very aggressive to expand into new countries. Hence the same format. This same aggressiveness should be used by the T20 format of Cricket. This means T20 should have 25 Teams

While Rugby is really aggressive we can see that Baseball and Hockey which presently are really not bullish about expanding into new markets have very conservative world cups. Baseball while is limited to few countries with huge GDP's like USA, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, hence feels no need to expand and on other hand Hockey is trying to save the game even in its traditional nations. Test Cricket should also follow such a conservative approach since it is highly technical hence the number of teams come out at 10 to 12. Since Test Cricket is 5 days in length, I would even reduce the number of teams for Test Championship to 5 to 6 Teams only.

Football is a established game however follows a middle path. It is neither conservative and nor too aggressive. It has a ratio of 4. Following this approach Cricket World Cup should have 20 teams

But but but, in soccer we have 24 Semi Finalists and 8 Winners a ratio of 4 where as in Cricket we have that Ratio of 1.8. Plus the length of football game is 2 Hrs while Cricket is 8 Hrs. Hence we cannot simply copy paste the approach. A look at number of teams in the World Cup to the number of Semi Finalists and applying the same ratio to cricket, we get number of teams in World Cup as 12. I would rather pick up this number as it would reflect the ideal number of teams. A middle path can also be taken which throws 16 teams since we want expansion based on 50 over World Cup too.

Based on second approach Rugby throws a number of number of teams as 23 (As compared to 25 in previous approach), hence for T20 world cup being aggressive we can have the number of teams as 24

Similarly on second approach in Baseball and Hockey throws the number of teams as 9 or 10 which is similar to last approach. Again the length of each game matter. We should reduce the number of teams to 4 to 6

Hence based on this analysis I would put up the number of teams for World Cup as follows

1. ICC Cricket World Cup:- 16 Teams
2. ICC World T20:- 24 Teams
3. ICC Test Championship:- 4 to 6 Teams

Hence Mr Haroon Lorgat, kindly do not keep the 2015 World Cup as a 10 nation. It would be utterly disgusting. Rather take the number to 16. If you are not willing to be that aggressive then you have to have minimum 12 teams. Wake up ICC

Chapter 5:-Europe Division 3 (T20) Championship 2011, World Twenty20 Qualifier

After Africa, Americas and EAP it was not time for Europe to start the qualification process for 2012 ICC World T20.  6 teams Slovenia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Estonia, Bulgaria and Sweden started their journey hopefully to qualify for the highest level possible for them. Though most teams were built on Expats or people of cricket playing nation's origin like Pakistani's, Indian, English etc there were few teams which had local players. Estonia had majority local players and many local players in the host team Slovenia.
The tournament was hosted by Slovenia and Austria. No team was making a debut in the tournament as all teams had been part of Div 5 and 6 of Europe in the OD format. The favorite of the tournament were Sweden along with the Hosts Slovenia. The tournament was quite low key in the media as compared to the tournament of Africa, America and EAP where the news regularly came out in the local newspapers. Perhaps the dominance of Soccer specially the Big 4 league and Champions Trophy is too how for others sports to make little space for themselves. Hopefully in future, the weight-age of cricket news will increase outside the British Isles also.
The tournament started with Estonia making a 240+ run score against the hosts which proved a task even higher than Everest. Sweden kept the tag of favorites and did not loose even a singe game and topping the pool qualifying for Div 2. Slovenia could not take much advantage of them being hosts. After Estonia they lost to Sweden and then finished the tournament losing the last match of tournament to Czech Republic.

The table was as follows

                P   W  NR   L   Pts    NRR
Sweden          5   5   0   0    10   4.78
Estonia         5   3   0   2     6   0.19
Slovenia        5   2   0   3     4  -0.15
Czech Republic  5   2   0   3     4  -0.43
Turkey          5   2   0   3     4  -2.36
Bulgaria        5   1   0   4     2  -1.12

Chapter 4:-Americas Division 2 (T20) Championship 2011, World Twenty20 Qualifier

After Belize won a promotion to Div 2, it was now time for action. Hosted in Suriname the winner would not only have promotion to Div 1 but also qualification to World Cricket League Div 8. There were 6 teams taking part:- Hosts Suriname, Div 3 promoted Belize, favorites Bahamas and Panama, Turks and Caicos & Brazil.

Bahamas who regularly play in Div 1 were the clear favorites. Suriname and Panama were expected to put some pressure on the favorites.

The tournament went along with 5 team fighting for the top spot. Brazil was outclassed by all teams. Finally Suriname winning 4 of the 5 matches came out on the Top. Panama, Belize and Turks & Caicos Islands ending with 6 points with Panama coming on top on Run Rate. The favorite's Bahama had a dismal tournament with just winning 2 games and 4 points.

The final points table was

                   P   W   L  Pts      NRR
Suriname           5   4   1    8     0.32
Panama             5   3   2    6     1.36
Belize             5   3   2    6     0.92
Turks & Caicos     5   3   2    6    -0.19
Bahamas            5   2   3    4    -0.56
Brazil             5   0   5    0    -2.58

Chapter 3:- EAP Division 2 (T20) Championship, World Twenty20 Qualifier

After Ghana in Africa then Costa Rica, Central America this time the tournament moved to Samoa in the Pacific Islands or Oceania. The country was formerly known as Western Samoa. This tournament marked the debut of 2 Asian teams of EAP region:- South Korea and Philippines. For South Korea it is a important step as they will be hosting the 2014 Asian Games which will feature Cricket in the T20 format. There were also reports on ICC website where South Koreans were seen practicing in snow for the tournament.
The second team which debuted were Philippines. A country with not a great sporting culture and being a member of ICC for over 4 years, this was a important milestone for the country where the game has been introduced by expats from Australia, India and Pakistan.

6 teams were taking part in the tournament. The 3 teams mentioned above debutant South Korea & Philippines, the hosts Samoa and three other teams Tonga, Cook Islands and Indonesia. Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga were the favorites and much was expected from Indonesia who recently had been awarded best youth development program. Not much was expected from the debutant though.

When the tournament progressed it was to amaze many. Philippines performed very nicely coming second in pool and reaching the finals. The South Koreans also did decently having 1 victory in league and then coming 5th by defeating Indonesia in rank play-off's. The league standing were as follows


Teams          P   W   N   L   Pts      NRR
Samoa          5   5   0   0    10     3.63
Phillipines    5   4   0   1     8     0.11
Tonga          5   2   0   3     4     0.11
Cook Islands   5   2   0   3     4    -1.10
Indonesia      5   1   0   4     2    -1.99
South Korea    5   1   0   4     2    -2.85

Chapter 2:-Americas Division 3 (T20) Championship 2011, World Twenty20 Qualifier

After the ICC Africa Div 3 where 3 countries made their debut i.e. Cameroon, Seychelles, Mali then came Americas Div 2 where this time Falkland Islands were making their debut. It was a tournament where 6 teams were taking part :- Belize, Panama, Mexico, Chile, Debutants Falkland Islands and Hosts Costa Rica.

The format was simple, all teams were in one pool and the Top teams qualifies for Div 2. The favorites for the tournament were Belize. Many people had high hopes from Falkland Islands as they though they being a British colony would have cricket culture somewhat similar to Seychelles did in Africa Div 3.

The teams of Belize and Falkland Islands were former British colonies and inherited the cricket culture from there. Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and Peru teams were full of expats from South Asia or Aus/NZ or Eng and they were the one's that have introduced cricket there.

The points tally of the tournament went as follows

TEAM               P   W   L   Pts    NRR
Belize             5   5   0   10     3.32
Peru               5   4   1    8     1.79
Chile              5   3   2    6    -0.07
Mexico             5   2   3    4    -1.01
Costa Rica         5   1   4    2    -1.59
Falkland Islands   5   0   5    0    -4.36

The format for 2015 World Cup

Lately there has been so much haggling on what should be the format of 2015 CWC. Australia and New Zealand simply want a 10 nation tournament similar to the 1992 CWC. They are scared that they would be having empty stadiums for SA V Can type of matches which India, SL and BD were able to do.

Now to add to the issue there is another problem. ICC has a agreement with ESPN Star Sports where there have promised a min of 45 matches in the World Cup and major teams like India playing atleast 6 matches. Also as part of the deal all 10 Test Nations need to play. This simply can be fulfilled by only 10 test teams and that ensures min 6 matches. The format of 2011 CWC also ensures the same but the hosts Aus and NZ are dead against it.  If we keep only 10 test nations then the Associates are against it and in long term may even threaten to go into the courts and ICC is set to loose.

Also there is another constraint. If ICC somehow convince the ESPN and introduce a qualifier removing the 10 test nation clause, then the most likely nation to lose out would be BD. BD is such a huge and emerging market, a place where cricket is like religion like it is in Ind, Pak or SL.

So many constraints and how do we solve the issue. I thought of a Idea, where in all test nations play, we have 2 associates, then each team plays 9 matches, and there are no meaningless matches like 2011 CWC but every match be it against Ind or Aus or be it against Ken or Can are very very important. The idea of the format came from 2011 IPL. What is the format I would try to explain

THE FORMAT

The table is quite self explanatory. All the 12 teams would be in 1 pool itself. They would play 9 instead of the 11 league matches. This means we have 54 league matches and then top 4 teams reach the SF and finals.

This means if Aus is playing SA or Neth every match is important as practically of the top 6 or 8 teams are fighting for the 4 spots. A loss to SA or Neth can be equally disastrous. Also if you see the format, the higher ranked teams have more matches with the lower ranked teams, and the lower ranked teams have more matches with higher ranked teams. For Eg Ind ranked 2, will not play the 2 matches against Rank 1 Aus and Rank 4 SA & Ass-2 i.e Rank 12 Neth do not play 2 matches against  Rank 9 BD & Rank 11 Ire. Hence over years the various bilateral ODI series will have a purpose and bad performances in those would mean tough times in World Cup. This format also ensures that the minnows like BD or Ire cannot go into next round based on 1 upset, and also they will be playing more tougher teams.

Ranked higher and playing low ranked doesn't mean all are bad matches. Ind will be playing Eng, SL, Pak, WI, NZ besides BD, Ire, Neth & Zim. So 5 very tough matches and every loss means more difficult to end in top 4 and same will be case loosing to say Ire

I also checked the matches of various types that happened in 2011, proposed 2015 and my 2015
Absolute Dead Rubbers?
Absolute dead rubbers are matches that happen between minnows i.e none of the team is in Top 8 (Ind, Aus, SA, SL, Eng, Pak, WI & NZ)
2011:- 6 (Can V Ken, Ken V Zim, Zim V Can, Ire V BD, BD V Neth, Neth V Ire)
P2015:- 1 (BD V Zim)
M2015:- 3 (Ire V BD, Neth V BD, Neth V Zim)
Hence my 2015 absolutely reduces the dead rubber matches as compared to 2011 CWC

Interesting T8 Matches?
T8 matches are that happen between any of the top 8 teams
2011:- 12
P2015:-28
M2015:-21

Again the interesting matches that everybody waits for increase from 12 to 21 as compared to 2011 CWC

Dead Rubbers?
The dead rubbers are the matches of T8 v other teams, for Eg SA V Neth. These matches are more of a formality to be there, but these matches also give the excitement of shock victories of minnows like Eng V Ire. These shock victories are remembered over long times. We should have such matches but they should not be in a majority. Then they drag the things.
2011:- 24
P2015:-0
M2015:-0
Why 0 in latter 2 beacuse for P8 every match has a significance. In 2015 it was a fight to finish in Top 4 in a pool from 4 teams of T8 and 7 teams. There was not much of fight to reach the next round. Here the T8 teams have a fight to finish in top 4 out of 8 T8 teams under the assumption they all defeat the minnows. Any loss to the minnows would be disastrous. This will keep the interest in all matches

Total Matches?
2011:- 42+7=49 Matches
P2015:- 45+3=48 Matches
M2015:- 54+3=57 Matches

So what is the benefit?
As compared to 2015 format of 10 teams, 12 teams format

1. Has more not matches
2. Has more number of absolute dead rubbers
3. Less number of T8 matches

So What are the Advantages?

1.  It is a Real "World" Cup where any deserving country has a chance to participate and not a closed colonial 10 nation tournament
2. It has space of top 2 associate to qualify for the world cup
3. It also is in line with ICC contractual obligation i.e all 10 test nations, min 45 matches and each test team playing a guarantee of 6 matches
4. It gives a meaning to the ODI rankings and adds interest to various bilateral series played over the years as part of FTP

Also since we have World Cup in NZ and Aus, we can make very good use of the timings. The matches in NZ would be day matches and in Aus we should have D&N matches. This would mean when the match in NZ ends then only the match in Aus will start. The distribution can be done in a way that times of the matches are convenient to the TV audience.This arrangement would mean that we can finish the league matches in 40 days with another week for SF and Finals. This would not drag the world cup for too long. Also teams play 9 matches in 40 days, i.e a match in 4.5 days. So a 3 to 4 day rest between the matches.

I Have mailed this proposal to ICC. I hope over time they look into this format and keep it for their world cup

Multi Tier Test System and how it fits in FTP

Over years there have been so many talks about giving Test Status to Bangladesh how it was a mistake. Many still believe they can and will improve. Then came in Ireland and Afghanistan. Ireland specifically with their performance have lead many to believe and push that they deserve Test Status. These teams have shown improvement and people follow cricket in their nations. Hence rightfully they should be given a chance to play the highest level and keep their players motivated. It would be good in long term to keep adding test teams for growth of cricket.

However then there is the issue of the Big 3-BCCI, CA and ECB who want to play more series amongst themselves and some against SL, Pak and SA. They will reluctantly be ready to host NZ or WI but hosting BD or Zim is a big no no. Now to add to that if you add to that another Test Nation and then ask them to take out time in FTP to play Ireland or Afghanistan instead of the top 3 which  would get them 10% of sponsorship money compared to playing Aus or Ind, why would they be willing to do that. For them additional Test nations is nation is burden on their resources.


I have always wonder what would be the right approach. The problem with present cricket structure is it is like a Communist System, creating different levels and assuming everything in level is equal. Unfortunately the sources of income come from a capitalistic system and ICC should realize that. In that light of that this what I have thought

What should be the Structure?
It should be a multi tier structure with promotion and relegation amongst these structure

Tier 1:- Aus, NZ, Eng, Zim, Ind, Pak, SL, BD, SA & WI
Tier 2:- Afg, Ken, Can, Neth, Scot, Nam, PNG, Ire, UAE & HK
IC Cup:- Ugan, Ber, Oman, Italy, USA, Den, Nep & Tanz

*those marked in red do not have a domestic tournament with dedicated players

 There should be a cycle of 4 years in which as part of FTP each nation in a Tier plays all other nations for atleast 3 Tests. ODI is the wish of nations to play or not but generally played along with Tests. If a country in Tier 1 wants to play a test against Tier 2 that is also allowed and counted as tests (Assuming say Eng goes into Tier 2 but still Ashes will be played). We are not dictating any one to play only a set of nation rather as a welfare state merely asking them to follow certain guidelines for the team in lower strata.

The IC Cup runs in the way it has been running i.e. a pool with 4 days FC matches happening over a time. Only difference it presently it happens in a single cycle for 2 years and now it would be 2 cycles over 4 years

At end of each cycle
Tier 1:-
Top 4 teams qualify for the Test Championship and winner is declared the Test Champion like World Cup champion
The Bottom 2 are relegated to Tier 2.
This keeps the excitement and teams not performing suffer and get relegated

Tier 2:-
Top 2 qualify for Tier 1
Bottom 2 relegated to IC Cup Div and loose test status for 4 years

IC Cup
The top 2 get Test Status and are promoted to Tier 2
The bottom 4 are relegated back to WCL and will have to qualify again

How will it fit in the FTP?
Getting the data from previous tours the time required for various forms of cricket in a tour are

Test:- 8 Days
ODI:- 4 Days
T20:- 2 Days
FC:- 6 Days
List A:- 3 Days

So if in 4 year cycle India has to have 9 tours to all test Tier 1 nations. Besides this India would like to have extra tour against Aus, SA, Eng, SL & Pak over these 4 years to have income stream and tours popular at home. This is beyond the requirement of FTP.


1.)The general Tour of India lets  Aus, Eng & SA typically is 4 Tests, 5 ODI, 3 T20, 1 FC and 1 List A

The tour would take :- 4x8+5X4+3X2+1X6+1X3= 67 Days

In a FTP there are 3 such tours and additional 3 Tours hence 67X6= 402 Days

2.)A tour against rest i.e NZ, Pak,SL, WI would be 3 Tests, 5 ODI, 2 T20, 1 FC and 1 List AThe tour would take:- 3X8+5X4+2X2+1X6+1X3= 57 Days
In a FTP there would be 4 tours with additional 2=1 Tour hence 57X5= 285 Days

3.)The tours for BD and Ire would be smaller with 3 Tests, 3 ODI, 1 T20, 1 FC and 1 List A (I have my doubts for List A but to be on the safer side lets include and move ahead)
The tour length here would be:- 3X8+3X4+1X2+1X6+1X3= 47 Days
The FTP will have just 2 tours making it 47X2= 92 Days

4.)Then India has to play IPL every year. Hence its schedule it needs to have a IPL Window of 50 Days
IPL Window=50X4=200 Days 

Like India have IPL window for themselves, Aus have it for Big Bash and so on. This is to give countries opportunities to earn from Domestic tournament which I believe would be a important source of income in future

5.)Then every year India would give a window for its international players for participating in  T20 tournament of other country as their players participate in for IPL. Remember these windows are not official ICC recognized but mere accommodation amongst boards and have to be considered.
Allowance for Other T20 Tournaments:- 20X4=80 Days
 However as there would be a T20 tournament in every country, accommodating with them would be in form of free days to players or holding a Test Series at that time and T20 specialist are free to go. 

6.)World Cup Window=60X1=60 Days
   

7.)World T20 Window= 20X2= 40 Days

8.)ICC Champion Trophy Window= 20X1= 20 Days

9.)Test Championship Window= 45X1= 45 Days

10.)Champions League Window:- 20X4= 80 Days  

11.)Rest:- 30X4= 120 Days

Hence a Total of 402+285+92+200+80+60+40+20+45+80+120=1424 Days, which is 356 days in a year leaving 9 days for any other activities 

In this schedule I have accommodated everything, 1 month rest to players in a year, window for IPL and other T20 leagues including Champions League and the favorite tours of the big 5 amongst themselves and compulsory tours to the other test nations test nations.

For the players perspective he gets 30 days rest, also players can be rested in some tours i.e when India tours WI, BD, Ire or NZ they can be rested. This has been built from the most busiest of schedules and when I analyzed  teams typically had the days cut in ODI series by playing triangular series or not playing T20. It is the test tours that are compulsory

How are ranking calculated for relegation?
When the cycle starts each team is supposed to play against all other 9 teams for at least 3 tests. There would be points given to teams based on their performance against that team a maximum of 20 points. That makes a max of 180 teams. If in 4 years they played 2 test series of 5 Test Series, then the points will be based on total of 10 tests.
The 20 points of Aus against Eng may be decided on 10 tests and against BD based on 3 Tests. How the points are to be given, a system can be worked out by ICC, which can be similar to what ICC uses in IC Cup

• Win – 14 points
• Draw if more than 10 hours of play lost – 7 points (otherwise 3 points)
• First Innings leader – 6 points (independent of final result)
• Abandoned without a ball played – 10 point

 So if in a Test Series between Aus and Eng, Aus won 3-2 and Aus got 54 Pts and Eng got 46 Pts and in second series Eng won 2-1 with 2 Drawn Test with Eng got 49 Pts and Aus got 38 Pts. Hence in total 92 Pts for Aus and Eng get 95 Pts. The 20 Pts would be split as Aus:- 9.84 and Eng 10.16. Hence in such a way each bi lateral series will have the points split and an overall table would be there.

This would make the whole Test Series besides really excitement. Think it is the series between Pak and BD and Pak want to win all the 3 matches taking first innings lead to come in Top 4 and qualify for Test Championship while BD require to draw one Test or Take an innings lead to be get out of bottom 2 and avoid relegation. Imagine the amount of excitement that will be there. It will make now the dead rubber 3-0 or 2-0 result series also interesting. Results will surely matter a lot.


What would be the implication of relegation and Promotion?
The present voting structure of ICC gives the absolute right to Test Nations. Bad performances are not punished. Also just being a test nation though not having a visible difference in level over an Associate (BD and Ire) gives an undue advantage like direct WC qualification and extra funding which is really unfair.
Being in Tier 1 should mean that each member would have 4 votes in the ICC, while in Tier 2 would mean that being reduced to 2 votes and IC Cup (Tier 3) will have 1 vote each. Hence from present 10 voting member 10 votes it would change to 28 voting members and  68 votes.

Presently  approximately over 4 years cycle ICC gives 20 M$ each to 10 Test nations, 2 M$ each to 6 ODI status nations and 1M$ each to the 4 HPP nations. So that is a total of 216 M$.
This amount is given to Test Nations to support their first class system, while to ODI status & HPP nations to support them for giving contracts to national team and developing talent.
The Test nations have got additional sources of money for hosting the teams for ODI and test series. Hence they have great means to support the FC structure.

In this system we should divide the funding in same ratio as the votes, so help the Tier 2 teams develop a FC structure also. Now the question arises how would we compensate the loss of funding to teams like Zim, BD or NZ which greatly depend on it. Answer is simple, instead of host taking it all money in a series and visitors just getting a participating fee, we go for a 80:20 divide. Hence when NZ hosts Aus or Eng they get large amounts in hosting, but they also get a huge chunk while they are visiting India. This would encourage teams like Ind, Aus to tour NZ, BD or WI rather than host them, which is great benefit and source of income. Since all the 9 teams would be playing there is a definite source of income through out the year. Also as every Test series has a reason points associated to it, the interest of people would be much higher and hence sponsorships are bound to increase. This way we ensure to compensate the teams. Now if they do not perform and go into Tier 2 (Say BD) then it is based on their performance.
The funding divide if we assume same amount of money is available then Tier 1 team gets 12.7 M$ (easily compensated with the FTP tours), Tier 2 gets 6.4 M$ (Good enough money to start and support a FC) and the IC Cup teams get 3.2 M$ (They can move to contracted players)

Over time if a team is relegated from Test to non Test (IC Cup) and it would have already started a FC based on funding, Then it would have a sudden loss in funding. However ICC will still keep supporting it for next cycle also with same funding level as a functioning FC should not be dismantled.  However even then if that team after 4 years is not able to reach Tier 2, then it will loose the funding. It would be believed during that time the team with that funding (As has an advantage over others in IC Cup as it has double funding and a Working FC structure) should be able to get back Test Status and also should have developed alternate funding sources.

Will the new voting structure affect the present political balance?
The present voting structure is divided on these lines

Asian Block (Ind, Pak, SL, BD):- 4/10=40%
White Block (Aus, NZ, Eng):- 3/10=30%
African Block (SA, Zim):- 2/10=20%
American Block (WI):- 1/10=10%

The proposed structure would make it as follows
Asian Block(Ind, Pak, Sl, BD, Afg, UAE, HK, Oman & Nep):- 24/68=35.3%
White Block (Aus, NZ, Eng, Ire, Neth, Scot, PNG, Italy & Den):- 22/68=32.3%
African Block(SA, Zim, Ken, Nam, Tan & Ugan):- 14/68=20.6%
American Block(WI, Can, Ber & USA):- 8/68=11.8%

Earlier the major block against expansion was the White block. To pass a resolution the Non White block needed 2/3rd votes i.e. 7 votes the exact no they had. Now to pass the resolution 2/3rd vote = 46 votes again what non white block has. Hence overall the power balance is same
But the Asian block and India would have less direct control and would require to take along much higher no of boards along. Also it would ensure that some colonial type decisions like 10 nation WC are not passed easily. However the Big 3 would need just 11 more votes (or 3 more Tier 1 nations) to block a decision which can be seen as too favorable and before time for lower strata of teams (Eg if a resolution is brought in for equal division of ICC money between all)

Hence it will be a more inclusive board and would help to take decision in general good for the world and not just 10 nations.

How would the qualification of World Cup Happen?
Suppose the World Cup is in 2019. This cycle would start for 2013 to 2017. In 2017 We also would have World Test Championship. Hence we would have a WCL cycle running from 2009 to 2013 and the Top 4 teams would qualify for IC Cup based on WCQ something similar to what happens now for WC qualification.
From 2013 to 2017 we have the 2 Tier and IC Cup running. After that all the teams would be ranked i.e
Tier 1
1 to 4 from World Test Championship
5 to 8 based in Tier 1 Ranking
9 & 10 Teams promoted from Tier 2
Tier 2
11 & 12 Teams relegated to Tier 2
13 to 18 based in Ranking in Tier 2
19 & 20 Promoted to Tier 2
Non Test
21& 22 Relegated from Tier 2
23 to 24 Based on IC Cup ranking
24 to 28 Relegated back to WCL

We should have a 16 nation World Cup
Top 12 Ranked teams directly qualify
WCQ for 8 teams from Rank 13 to 20 and Top 4 qualify

The teams in Tier 2 will have a very relaxed schedule as they will have funds to play short series and very rarely a double series with any team. Hence Tier 2 will be scheduled to finished 20 days before Tier 1 and this would be utilized as time for WCQ.

For World T20 and Champions Trophy would be direct qualification based on ranking.


So in the End
The message is pretty clear. For common man every test series will have a meaning. The qualification for World Cup would be based on a merit. Lets built a system of meritocracy and lets hope and push towards it
21 & 22.

We need to have regional tournaments.

ICC recently went ahead with proposals to reduce 2015 WC to 10 nations. While all sports are for increasing the no of teams, in cricket we still have our colonial mindset and went the opposite way. As a sop to the new nations ICC offered them a 16 nation World T-20 and that will be held twice before 2015 WC in 2012 in SL and 2014 in BD. If ICC is so serious for a 10 nation CWC then what about the exposure to Associate nations.

To ensure that we give right exposure to the lesser nations we should go ahead with regional tournaments to be held once in 4 years replacing Champions Trophy. We know Champions trophy brings in revenue. To ensure that these regional tournaments also bring in revenue we should have them in the shortest format i.e T20. Asia will surely give revenue's to ICC via ACC while the others may take some time. The closest to earning a revenue would be ECC. These tournaments would go ahead as per present ranking like this

ASIA
Group A:-Ind, BD, Afg, HK
Group B:-SL, Pak, Nep,UAE
Top 2 from each group go into semi finals and then finals

AFRICA
League:-SA, Zim, Ken, Nam, Ugan
Top 2 go into finals

EUROPE
League:-Eng, Ire,Scot, Neth, Wales & Italy. Wales though a part of eng would field a seperate team here
Top 2 reach the finals. This tournament can be played in Ireland or Netherlands

AMERICAS
League:-WI, Can, USA & Bermuda
Top 2 reach the finals

EAP
League:-Aus, NZ & PNG
Top 2 in Final

The tournament should go ahead to create compact scheduling. On a weekday 2 matches and weekend 3 matches should be played. The longest of this tournament would be the Asia Cup. Let us show an sample schedule of it

Day 1 (Sat):-
1 PM:- BD V Afg
5 PM:-SL V Pak
9 PM:-Ind V HK

Day 2 (Sun)
1 PM:- Nep V UAE
5 PM:-SL V Nep
9 PM:- Ind V Afg

Day 3 (Mon)
5 PM:- BD V HK
9 PM:- Pak V UAE

Day 4 (Tue)
5 PM:- Afg V HK
9 PM:- Ind V BD

Day 5 (Wed)
5 PM:- SL V UAE
9 PM:- Pak V Nep

Day 6 (Thrus)
Break /Reserve day

Day 7 (Fri)
5 PM:- SF 1
9 PM:- SF 2

Day 8 (Sat)
9 PM:- Final

And this is the longest of all schedule. The shortest ones can be finished in 5 days. I hope ICC goes ahead and gives exposure to the lesser teams

Chapter 1:- Africa Div 3 (T20) Chanpionship, 2011, World Twenty20 Qualifier

The path to 2012 World Twenty20 started its first leg with 7 nations of Africa fighting it out in hope of reach the ultimate pinnacle. The 7 Nations played in WCL Africa Div 3. These nations were:- Mali, Gambia, Cameroon, Lesotho, Morocco, Seychelles & Rwanda. The winner of this tournament would qualify for Africa Div 2

Gambia have a cricketing culture with they being former member of the West African team and a former British colony.
Rwanda has been going really strong on cricket development with their schools regularly taking part in Uganda. This has lead to decent levels of development
Seychelles is a former British Colony with a cricket legacy. They regularly played a triangular tournament with Maldives & Mauritius until the 1990's. They were the 105th member(Latest) member of ICC and this was their first tournament
Morocco:- They are also new to the cricketing spectrum. They however had the credit of hosting ODI at the stadium between South Africa, Pakistan & Sri Lanka
Lesotho are completely surrounded by South Africa and hence does not leave any doubt where cricket comes from
Mali and Cameroon are teams on which I don't have much information

The teams were divided into 2 groups
GROUP A:- Rwanda, Lesotho & Cameroon
GROUP B:- Seychelles, Morocco, Gambia & Mali

The tournament favorites Rwanda virtually had no competition in their group. They simply thrashed both the teams and qualified for finals. Cricket influence of South Africa helped them defeat Cameroon and come second

Group A
Team P W L T/NR Pts
Rwanda 2 2 0 0 4
Lesotho 2 1 1 0 2
Cameroon 2 0 2 0 0

In other group the teams were new to each other but West African experience had made them the favorites. However it was the newcomer Seychelles that rocked the world and won all their matches. Morocco with good infrastructure managed to come second while Gambia third, not making much use of their past experiences. Mali came 4th in group and hence last overall in tournament as they would not play any playoff.

Group B
Team P W L T/NR Pts
Seychelles 3 3 0 0 6
Morocco 3 2 1 0 4
Gambia 3 1 2 0 2
Mali 3 0 3 0 0


The final match was between Seychelles and Rwanda. The winner would go into the Div 2 and rest would have to play it out next time after 2 years. However Rwanda kept to their tag and won the tournament qualifying for Africa Div 2.

FINAL STANDING
1. Rwanda (Qualify for Africa Div 2)
2. Seychelles
3. Lesotho
4. Morocco
5. Gambia
6. Cameroon
7. Mali

Journey to 2012 ICC World Twenty20

Cricket new rising star will be held in Sri Lanka in 2012. The process of qualification of the same has already started. We would be following the qualification process very closely here. First to start with we will have a complete understanding of the process.

What is Twenty20?
Twenty20 is the latest format developed in cricket. It consists of both team batting or balling for 20 overs. The match lasts for 3.5 hours much comparable to other sports like Baseball, Football etc.
It involves explosive form of cricket with much higher ratio of 4's and 6's and is entertaining for the crowds. ICC (International Cricket Council) has made it the guiding vehicle to introduce cricket to new markets.

How many teams will be playing World Twenty20 and what will be the format?
16 teams will be playing in the world cup. The format has not yet been decided. Most likely it will be 4 pools of 4 teams each. Then top 2 teams qualify to Super 8's with again 2 groups of 4. Then we will have a Semi Final and a Final.
Whenever the exact format comes I will definitely update the same

How many similar world cup have happened and who are the winners?
This would be the 4th World Cup. The previous 3 have been as follows
2007, South Africa:- India defeated arch rivals Pakistan to win the first World Cup
2009, England:- Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka
2010, West Indies:- England defeated arch rivals Australia to lift their first ICC trophy

What is the qualification process?
To understand the qualification process we need to understand the structure of ICC.

ICC has got 3 level of membership.
Test Nations:- These are the highest level of members who are officially allowed to play Test Cricket (5day matches). These nations only have voting rights. Presently there are 10 Test Nations:- Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies (A combination of 20 Caribbean nations) & Zimbabwe
Associates:- These are countries where cricket is firmly established, but yet not at a level to play Test Cricket. In simple words, cricket is one of the major say 15 games with a proper structure to manage it. There are 34 Associate Members.
Affiliates:-These are nations where cricket is in developing stage and has got regulation to play it as per ICC regulations. There are 60 Affiliate Members.

ICC manages Associate and Affiliate through 5 regions. These 5 regions are:-Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas & East Asia Pacific

The Top Associate and Affiliate from these regions form a part of the World Cricket League. There are 8 Divisions of World Cricket League. Division 1 to 7 have 6 teams each. Division 8 has 8 teams. The rest of the nations play in the Regional Division i.e WCL Africa or WCL Europe etc.

The World Cricket League runs over a period of 2 years. It is in 50 Over format. Since a world cup (50 Over) is after 4 years, hence for a 50 Over WC, 2 cycle of WCL happen.
From previous Division 8, the top 2 teams would have qualified for Div 7. The 3rd stays in Div 8. From previous Div 7 the bottom 2 are relegated to Div 8. Hence 5 slots left. These slots are filled by 1 team from each region. At the end, again top 2 teams go to Div 7, 3rd stays and rest 5 go back into regional tournaments.
For Div 3 to Div 7, there are 6 teams. Top 2 qualify to higher Div. Middle 2 stay and bottom 2 are relegated to lower Division.
In Division 2, the Top 4 qualify for 50 Over WC Qualifer. Bottom 2 are relegated to Div 3. This Div happens once in 4 years. The 4 teams in Div 2 are the teams rank 7 to 10 from 50 Over WCQ and 2 more come from Div 3
Division 1 are teams ranked 1 to 6 in WCQ. Like Div 2 it also happens once in 4 years. All teams in Div 1 get ODi status i.e there 50 overs and 20 overs matches are recogonized in official records
Finally happens the World Cup Qualifers. It has got 12 Teams. 6 teams from Div 1, Top from Div 2 and Top 2 from Div 3 form a part. Based on ranking Top 6 again go into Div 1, 7 to 10 in Div 2 and 11 & 12 in Div 3.
Hence in Div 3 for the first cycle in WC qualification top 2 teams reach the Div 2. Then Div 2 is played. Top 4 into WCQ and bottom 2 back to Div 3. In the next cycle the top 2 teams go into WCQ directly

Hence this was the complete ICC structure.

Coming back to the qualification structure for 2012 World Twenty20.
As expected the Test Teams directly qualify. Hence 10 slots gone. Left are 6.

For these 6 slots there will be a 20-20 WC Qualifier. It will also consist of 16 teams. The 16 teams will be decided as follows:- 6 teams of Div 1 (Because they have official ODI and 20-20 status). Rest 10 slots will be filled as follows Region (WCQ Slots):- Asia (3), Europe(2), Africa(2), Americas (2) and EAP(1). Hence from 16 teams 6 will go into World Cup

The 6 teams of Division 1 are Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands & Scotland

Now next questions comes into mind, how will regional teams be decided
The regional tournaments of 5 regions have all been scheduled. These are as follows

Europe
Europe Div 3 (Slovenia):-Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey
Europe Div 2 (Belgium):-Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Hellas, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, winner of ICC Europe Division 3
Europe Div 1(Jersey/Guernsey):- Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Israel, Italy, Jersey, Norway, Spain, Winner from ICC Europe Division 2

Africa
Africa Div 3 (Ghana):- Cameroon, Gambia, Lesotho, Mali, Morocco, Rwanda, Seychelles
Africa Div 2 (South Africa):- Zambia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Nigeria, Botswana, winner from ICC Africa Division 3
Africa Div 1 (Kenya) also known as African Premier League:- Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, South Africa Emerging, Zimbabwe Emerging, Winner from ICC Africa Division 2

Kenya, are already in qualifiers. South Africa and Zimbabwe are Test Nations.Even if they win the Divisions tournaments the next highest ranked teams will qualify.

Asia
ACC (Asia Cricket Council) makes a ranking of Asian teams based on the performance in Senior, U-19 and U-15 tournaments. The teams which perform good across all age groups will get higher ranks. This is to encourage overall development of cricket starting right from children. Based on these ranking the top 10 teams have been given a chance to play for qualifiers out of 18 teams in Asia

ACC T20 (Nepal):- Afghanistan, Nepal, UAE, Oman, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bhutan, Kuwait, Maldives, Saudi Arabia

Afghanistan are part of WCL Div 1. If they come in top 3, then the next highest rank would qualify.

Americas
Americas Div 3 (Costa Rica):- Belize, Chile, Peru, Mexico,Costa Rica, Falkland Islands
Americas Div 2 (Suriname):- Bahamas, Brazil, Panama, Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands, Winner of America Division 3
Americas Div 1 (TBC):- Argentina, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, USA, Winner from ICC Americas Division 2

Canada are part of WCL Div 1. If they come in top 2, then the next highest rank would qualify.

East Asia Pacific
EAP Div 2 (Samoa):- Indonesia, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Philippines, South Korea
EAP Div 1 (Papua New Guinea):- PNG, Fiji, Japan, Vanuatu, Winner from ICC EAP Division 2

The race has already begun with Africa Div 3 already over and Americas Div 3 going on as I type this blog. I would be updating each and every division. Stay here to be tuned to all the action. This is truly going like Football qualification with the best 16 making, only difference is test teams have a direct entry which they surely deserve. Keep tuned for all the action. I am excited.

How to Spread Cricket

We all recently saw news of the bold decision of FIFA to take up the bold decision of giving 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 World Cup to Qatar!! IRB, the International Rugby Board is also in such a league. They have been trying very hard to expand Rugby. The 2015 WC was awarded to a Emerging Nation Japan. They are also promoting Rugby 7's and it certain to be included in next Olympics.

All these things also brought a thought in my mind, what can we do to expand Cricket. Surely ICC has been undertaking development program. But my thought something is missing. Then I have come out with few thoughts. On many of them ICC may be working or plans to do that.

The Biggest Step would be to use the powerful and fast form cricket as the vehicle to spread cricket the 20-20. We have a 20-20 World Cup every 2 years. The 2012 is in SL and 14 is in BD. Both these nations are co hosting 2011 50-50 World Cup. Hence instead of these countries hosting it again, the 20-20 cup should have been given to emerging nations. The list of emerging countries are Ireland, Holland, Scotland, UAE, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malaysia, Canada, China (When their team achieve some performance level), USA, Argentina, Hong Kong (Along with China maybe), Singapore, Afghanistan (When the Security Situation is right), Namibia, Oman, Nepal, Bahrain, Botswana.

Similar to FIFA, ICC should have an open bid from the bodies. The thing behind it is to make it Bid. Market it as the World Cup of a very popular game's most popular format or anything. For such bids the boards take the alignment of their government. So that brings in some extra funding.
Have some basic rule's
1. Give the hosting rights 5 years in advance
2. The Host nation or nations will have a guaranteed spot to play
3. Some basic expectation of Cricketing Infrastructure
4. ICC should have a plan to ensure that the host will be expected to earn out of the whole investment made.

Once the host has been decided, (lets assume Malaysia is Chosen as the Host 2016 World Cup). We begin with our Objective 2016 Malaysia. The priorities are
1. Have at least 6 decent cricket stadiums for World Cup
2. Have a good competitive cricket team ready for World Cup
3. Have a good level of local interest in the tournament and game
4. Establish a local cricket league with a robust way to attain talent for future

For Malaysia 2016 we will proceed as follows:-

Firstly ICC, Malaysian Cricket Board, Malaysian Olympic Council and Malaysian Government set up 2016 Fund with contribution from each side and a committee to handle all funds. The committee will have members from each of the 4 organization as per the bid submitted. Also ICC will provide the money to have share of the profits. The contribution from other organization can be for in any form- Loan, Aid, Profit Sharing or Partnership all as per the bid.

Then the next step would be choosing a pool of 30 players who will be offered Central Contract. The value for first year would be based on a rough norm of 15 times per capita income. For next 4 years it will be min as per the same thumb rule. if commercials allow then no upper limits. The contracts will be of 4 Grade A, B, C & D as per player capability.

ICC will also draw up a complete 5 year plan for Malaysia where they will have a busy schedule playing games against Test nations, their A teams, junior teams and in all 3 forms of cricket. 3 Coaches (Main, Bowling & Batting) will also be appointed.

Parallel to this the process of Developing 7 stadiums starts. 2 of these are in the capital Kuala Lumpur. The other 5 stadiums will be based at Johor Bahru,Kota Kinabalu, Shah Alam, Ipoh, Subang Jaya. The stadiums should be ready in 2 years.

Also Parallel to the above 2 steps, we establish 6 Clubs based out of the 6 cities which will have stadiums. These Clubs will be provided with Funds and a geographical catchment area. The purpose is to effectively cover the whole nation. Their funds will be for 4 purposes. First they can offer contract upto 45 players as per the talent they will encounter.They surely will have a team of 16 contracted players who will playing the first season. The Central players will play in the clubs as per their geographical locale. However if any Club does not get any central contract players they will be provided with 2 players from Grade A or B and one from Grade C or D
Besides this the clubs start the process of introducing the game in schools. The target is to cover atleast 80% of the schools in the Catchment. The Club will provide cricket kits. cricket knowledge, establish coaches to train students. The Club will conduct school tournaments every 6 months. The best of the talent will be offered scholarship till bachelor studies. The only condition would be training or playing cricket for certain no of years. The best of the student can be directly offered Club Contract or even Central Contract as per the talent.
The Clubs will conduct tournament for local sides and general trial camps where the purpose will be to tap talent.

Then we will get into an agreement with a local channel. Some of the parts of the agreement would be
1. The Channel will cover all the Club Matches Live
2. The channel will cover all matches of Malaysia live
3. When no live match is going on then at that time the channel will show the selected good matches of the established teams. The purpose will be to show high quality matches
4. It will also have program on how to play cricket and some other interesting aspects of the Game
5. It will have the exclusive rights to cover 2016 WC live in Malaysia
6. If the channel has objection of covering cricket from 2011 then as a part of agreement ICC will cover the costs and guarantee some level of profit in return to have share in the profits of the WC. The purpose of ICC is to recover costs and have profits in local markets too from telecast rights
7. If in the above period any commercial agreements come ICC gets all the money since ICC is already covering a basic expected profit level.
7. For all the other markets except Malaysia the channel will have no rights. The ICC will have the exclusive rights to sell them


The above steps will cover the objectives 1,2 & 4 and 3 partially in Project Malaysia 2016. To cover point 3 some additional steps will be taken
1. Take a known celebrity as the brand ambassador for the Tournament and promotion
2. Have regular add, campaigns to make the point that Malaysia has got the 2016 WC
3. Have big screens installed in all these cities which will have our TV channel regularly to cover cricket.
4. Have political and other important personalities related with cricket. This will bring notice to the game.
5. Bring the school children to watch the club matches.

And then we have the 2015 WC. The 2014 Club championship was highly successful. It gave profits for the first time. The ticket sales were very good. The channel also got great adds and ICC had mega profits. These were used to provide money to the clubs. The Channel then immediately switched to profit sharing seeing the response. The Malaysian team also got sponsors lined up and the team had various successes. They just one a ODI series against Bangladesh and then won a triangular versus WI and Ireland. They also managed to win the first 20-20 against Australia. It had the street screen filled with crowds cheering for Malaysia with high TRP's.

Finally then came the big tournament. the World Cup. The excitement was huge. To see top teams, top stars like Dhoni, Lee or Shoaib Akhtar. We had many people from other parts of world coming in. All the matches went houseful. The final had TRP rating not matched by any channel. The tournament was a financial success with ICC, Malay Cricket Association making profits. They easily paid the soft loans of Olympic Council and Government.

Malaysia now has got a good cricketing culture re established after British left. Malay CA sets a goal as 2019 to achieve Test Status.

ICC also take a sigh of relieve because of the high investments made here and also allocating the 2018 in 2013. However by 2015 ICC was in a much comfortable position seeing the results and boldly went ahead for the 3rd time to allocate the tournament of 2020. Hence a complete 20-20 line was drawn for next 5 WC after Malaysia

2007:-SA
2009:-Eng
2010:-WI
2012:-SL
2014:-BD
2016:-Malay
2018:-Ken,Tan & Uganda (Yes all 3 play and tournament is made 18 nation)
2020:-Neth & Den
2022:-China
2024:-UAE & Oman
2026:-Ire & Scot

At 2027 the test nations are 35 namely Aus, NZ, PNG, Ind, Pak, SL, BD, Afg, Nep, UAE, Oman, Malaysia, China,Singapore, HK, Eng, Neth, Ire, Scot, Den, SA, Zim, Ken, Tan, Uganda, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, WI, USA, Can, Argentina, Caribbean (Combined nations of Caribbean besides nation in WI), Pacific (Countries of Oceania), East Indies (Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Comorros, Reunion & other Indian ocean islands)

Amen for Jashan Plan 35 by 25

Future power houses of Cricket

Cricket is said to be the second most popular game after football. How? because it is popular in the subcontinent which represents around 20% of the world population, but if we see no of countries it is really popular in it's just a handful- Around 10. This is really dangerous for cricket. If it's limited to such a small no of nations the chances of the game withering out are quite high. Hence there is a urgent need by the governing bodies to diversify the game into more nations, have more powerhouses and money centers for the game.

But first of all why is cricket limited to so less a nations. Cricket as a game was originated in England and taken by English wherever they went. Hence initially long time back Canada and US also played, but after the civil war the game withered away in US. In Canada as the game was quite dependent on rivalry with US, with fall of US cricket was a fall of Canadian cricket too. Meanwhile the game Spread to Australia, then New-Zealand, West Indies. In 1930's India was added as the Test nation. Around 50's Pakistan was added. Due to apartheid South Africa was soon banned from Cricket. Until this time the ICC was Imperial Cricket Council and not International!!! Practically cricket was not even expected to be played outside commonwealth. Hence for so many years the game was limited to a few nations. When the first world cup happened there were only 6 test nations (Power Houses) and the rest 2 nations qualified. Over time in each decade only 1 team has been added- Sri Lanka in 80's, Zimbabwe in 90's & Bangladesh in 2000's. South Africa was allowed to return in 91 World Cup. At this rate of 1 team being added we are loosing teams also. Zimbabwe greatly lost due to political and economical instability. Bangladesh is very slowly picking up. West Indies level of cricket is going down. If something radical is not done then the game would be limited to a handful of nation like American Football. Hence a great need to New Power Houses

The funda of developing power houses should be simple
1. Either the nation has the capability of build a good cricket team which will be able to sustain itself
2. The country can be a source of additional monetary income and with additional help the country can be built into a performing team
3. The country has great no of expats who vigorously follow the game and would be very keen to be a part of it.
4. Combination of any 2

Under these lets look at the possible teams according to the 5 development zones of ICC

1. EUROPE

A. IRELAND
This is one of the most promising teams who have home grown talent. In fact they have been loosing talent regularly to England. In recent times they have virtually won all the tournaments. besides that they performed very nicely in World Cup defeating test sides of Pakistan and Zimbabwe. They have been putting forward a case for Test Status. With more development on local league structure and infra they surely can put forward a case in 2 3 years for Test Status

B. SCOTLAND
They have been playing cricket along with England for a long time. They played ass a part in England team until breaking off in 1992. They have been able qualify for World Cup in 1999 & 2007 and also for 20-20 WC.They finished 5th in ICC's Trophy just missing the berth in 2011 WC, but gaining a ODI Status till 2011. They have been able to gain some exposure by playing against visiting teams in England at regular interval. A great regional rivalry exists between Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands in European cricket.

C. NETHERLAND
Along with Ireland and Netherlands are one of the 3 heavyweights in Europe as well as in the Tier 2 cricket nations. They have 3 times qualified for World Cup in 96, 03 & 07 and will play again in 11 WC also. The team definitely has shown performance and has been performing decently in the ICC WCL.

D. DENMARK
Denmark showed a great potential specially during 80's. They were the semi finalists in the ICC trophy each time loosing to future test nations Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. They were also one of the top 6 associate's hence invited to ICC's Emerging Nations Tournaments. There performance however has got some challenge by other Europeans heavyweights coming into cricket such as Ire and Scot besides new countries like UAE, Afg just to add to the list. But the game of cricket definitely has a lot of potential and promise and Denmark definitely can progress in field of cricket.

2. ASIA

A UAE
UAE are one of the most successful non test playing teams, who have won most of the ACC trophies. Initially UAE attracted a lot of Class A players from South Asia and formed quite a competitive. Though this was not a fair way to build a team and hence ICC changed rules to have a min number of passport holders and other expats. Allowing non passport holders to play for a country is criticized by many but people should realize that more than 60% of UAE's population is expat.
UAE also has been able to produce state of the art infrastructure. It has hosted all of the Test Playing nations at it's famous venue of Sharjah and the stadiums never went empty. The Infrastructure is definitely better than test nations like Bangladesh. ICC should change certain rules and include 60% Expat population in the cricket team.

B AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan has been in news for their rapid rise in international cricket. They kept winning from bottom of the divisions in WCL to reach the world cup qualifiers just narrowly missing qualification but gaining ODI status. The most amazing thing about the Afghan team is that all the members are natives to the country, local boys and not people of Test Nation's origin. Help from neighbors like Pakistan, India, SL or BD would be great help in building the team. Also cricket can be a source of bringing back a country who have been battered by 3 decades of war and a generation lost to it. Cricket can really work for this nation and a strong test team born out of it.

C NEPAL
Cricket is the fastest growing sport in Nepal. The team has done very good in the ACC tournaments with finishing runner up. Also the youth team has done really well in the youth world cup. They were able to defeat 3 test teams and won the Plate Group. Incredible performance and shows the future. The popularity of Cricket was visible with the attendance for WCL Div 5 held in Nepal. The crowds were there to cheer the home team for every match. A strong influence of Cricket Crazy India has really helped develop the game. Many of the people who worked in India have brought back the game. With help of other South Asian team, this can be like Afghanistan, a team of great promise.

D HONG KONG
Cricket was introduced to Hong Kong by the British. It has one of the oldest clubs in Asia. They have been the finalist of ACC trophy and have had the chance to play 2 Asia Cups. Hong Kong Sixes was also a really successful tournament any Associate has been able to host. Innovation would be the key. The challenge would be to be more reliant on the local population rather than Pakistani or Indian origin people. With introduction of cricket to China and efforts to expand it there can be really helpful to get a more wider base for the game.

E MALAYSIA
Like Hong Kong cricket was introduced by the British. Malaysia has been host to many Asian level tournaments. Malaysian team has had some good performances. Cricket was also hosted in multi sports event at Malaysia in the CW Games. The biggest challenge would be to expand cricket to people of Malay and Chinese origin which is presently limited to people of Indian Origin. With expansion of cricket and good initiative like IPL and 20 20, cricket can definitely spread in the country

F OMAN
They are recent entrants into the big boys arena. Like UAE they are also quite dependent upon expats. They have performed really good at the ACC trophies with once finishing runners up and qualifying for Asia Cup only to know that cup was scrapped. They have had some decent performances. The large expat population along with local are really getting into the game. With the money around they can definitely make way into the Super boys.

AFRICA

A KENYA
They are the most known and successful of the Associate's. They have been the world cup semi finalist in 2003 world cup. They were on the verge of gaining test status. Lately some issues with contract have been troubling the performance. But overall the team has got great promise and along with likes of Ireland, Afghanistan will be the ones to gain test status. The biggest challenges are the contract and discipline issues of player and also that cricket is limited to big cities and the clubs there. For the team to be even more successful it needs to be spread even beyond the cities.
I hope to see this team as the 11th Test team

B NAMIBIA
Namibia is a team which is formed by the natives. The height of it's performance was when it played the world cup in Africa at South Africa in 2003. The team has though not been able to repeat it performance. They are a part of the top associate with playing for Inter Continental Shield Tournament. South Africa and Zimbabwe have been helping the Namibians by allowing them to play in the domestic tournaments. ICC's continued focus on associate's would definitely help this team to develop

C UGANDA
They are another bright spot in world cricket. They had played in world cup as a part of East African team. They have recently really improved in their performance. They had qualified for ICC Trophy. Now they are a part of Inter Continental Shield. The youth development program has really worked for the nation. They already contain a lot of native players. With the improved performances Uganda surely will become a force to recon with in international cricket.

AMERICAS

A CANADA
They were the first country to play international cricket with a match against USA. At one time cricket was the most popular game. It was propelled by the rivalry against USA. However since being closed outside commonwealth and anti British feeling in USA, cricket declined there. Due to decline in USA the Canada USA matches also lost steam. This also resulted in decline of game in Canada.
However after immigration from Sub Continent and Caribbean the game has started to bounce back. After 1979 Canadian team again took part in 2003 World Cup after a gap of 24 years. Domestic level cricket has started to prosper in the nation. 20 20 also provides a opportunity to expand it further.

B USA
As already said Cricket was once really popular in USA. In fact founding father George Washington is said to be a big fan of cricket. He used cricket to defend the word Governor. There was a great rivalry with Canada and many English and Australian teams had toured the nation. However after formation of Imperial Cricket Council Cricket was limited to Commonwealth. Also in between civil war and World War 2, baseball really picked up and cricket was lost.
As was the case with Canada, cricket was revived with immigrants coming in. 20 20 Cricket has also provided a great boost to cricket, with many efforts at a IPL style league. ICC is also interested in expanding the game due the huge amount of money. Some bad administration definitely caused some hiccups but everything is coming back on track. Around 2011, a 20 20 league of international players is also proposed. Fingers are crossed for all the great efforts and hope cricket makes a comeback in USA

C BERMUDA
Cricket is the most popular game in Bermuda. Even though Bermuda just has a population of fifty thousand still the country has managed to qualify for the world cup. The country has seem some decline due to low population. A good way in my opinion for Bermuda is to either become a part of West Indies or along with countries like Bahamas, Turk and Cacous Islands (Who already have cricket teams as part of ICC) and Cuba, Dominica and other Caribbean nations form a West Indies 2 or Caribbean team.

OCEANIA

A PAPUA NEW GUINEA
They dominate the EAP region. They have a team made of all indigenous people. Cricket is also one of the popular sports though much behind Rugby or Soccer. Recently support for the team has been extended by Australia. The foundation is very good. Help from countries like Australia can really take this team to great heights

B FIJI
Cricket was introduced by the colonial master to the nations. Cricket has got tough competition from Rugby which is most popular. The team has been at a constant level. To develop cricket Fiji can really lead efforts to form a Oceania team or a Pacific Team. Another form of Cricket "Kilikit" is really popular in Polynesia. Polynesia includes of many nations like Samoa, American Samoa, Tuvalu,Cook Islands,French Polynesia. Besides this many other pacific nations have teams. Cricket is a part of South Pacific games. A team based on West Indies model can really develop into a great team. Already there are many regional level co ordination going between the Oceania nations. Australia is a major contributor to this co ordination. Cricket can also be introduced and can come out as a real bond.

Besides this some other nations like Argentina, Jersey, Guernsey, Tanzania, Botswana has shown some potential. When the game spreads many of the larger nation has the foundation and will quickly catch up. Smaller nations like Jersey or Guernsey should look into the West Indies model and come as combined great forces. I hope in next 10 years at least 10 new power houses come into cricket

Time to change world cricket order

The present cricket order is in a serious situation of being Hijacked and making it obsolete. Neither it seems to stand in front of local league's like IPL nor it is helping to spread cricket beyond the test bastion. However ironically Cricket stands at a juncture where it got one of its biggest gifts, an innovation which can be a springboard for a global launch. This is the new format known as twenty 20.

Cricket has got various forms as known to most of you-Tests, ODI & Lately 20-20. Test is kept exclusive for presently 10 nations. ODI and 20-20 is extended to few 5 6 more nations. Some nations like Kenya or Ireland though repeatedly have performed greatly even defeating test teams regularly but the test cricket is still a no no for them. On the other hand some Test nations like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe have performed badly not only loosing regularly to other test nations but also loosing to Non Test nations. So why this partial treatment. Favor to Bangla and discrimination for Ireland just because Bangla is a neighbor of all powerful India.

We need to change the system to being more competitive and interesting and also to reward the good performers from the non test nations while punishing the bad performers in Test world. I feel a system of Three Tier should be applicable for world cricket. The top Tier would have 10 teams, Tier 2 also 10 teams and Tier 3 rest of the teams. The team structure in present form could look somewhat like this

TIER 1: Aus, BD, Eng, Ind, NZ, Pak, SA, SL, WI, Zim
TIER 2: Any 10 out of these teams based on performance - Afg, Neth, Ire, Kenya, Scot, UAE, USA, Canada, Denmark, Namibia, Nepal, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bermuda, Argentina, Oman, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Fiji
TIER 3: Rest of the nations

2 bottom teams of each tier get relegated and Top 2 get promoted to the next Tier. This would make the top 2 tiers very exciting. We would continue to watch cricket in India normally as part of Tier 1 with playing the similar teams. However if we are not performing and are on the brink of relegation imagine the excitement it would add for us. Teams like BD or ZIM would also take their skills levels seriously knowing the consequences. So if BD and ZIM are relegated in the Test form and while Ireland and Afg get promoted, it would give a great exposure to these 2 teams and improve their level of cricket. While BD & ZIM who would have learned some skills playing the big boys would also bring some skills for Tier 2. If now BD does not even perform now and Canada and Zim top the tier, its survival of the fittest.

In this way the Tier 1 & 2 both remain exciting where Big Boys play competitively not to get relegated while Tier 2 teams stretch to get the reward of being along with the top guys.

This Tier system should be applicable separately to all 3 forms of cricket with possibility of separate teams in the 3 Tiers. For e.g. besides big 8 in test at a moment it may be Zim and Ire, for ODI it may be Ken and BD and for 20 20 it may be Afg and USA.

This is the time to act and spread cricket and take it to new heights. I hope ICC takes a note and acts.