ICC approve World Cup qualifying system
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved a new system of qualifying for the 2015 World Cup.
It is a result of a humiliating u-turn by the ICC after they had originally announced that the 2015 tournament would be just contested by the 10 Test-playing countries.
However, following a negative reaction to that they have decided to organise qualifying which will see four second-tier countries end up fighting out the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
There will be a new 50-over League introduced which will serve as the qualifying programme for the World Cup.
The top two teams in the eight team 50-over League will qualify automatically for the World Cup and the remainder of the teams will be joined by the teams finishing third and fourth in the World Cricket League Division 2.
The top two teams will compete in the new League to decide the remaining two qualifiers. The event will take place at a venue and on a date still to be decided.
ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said that this system would enable all countries no matter what level they were at the moment.
“This will provide exciting context for the new 50-over League with every one of the Associate and Affiliate teams able to make their way from Division eight of the World Cricket League all the way to the ICC Cricket World Cup finals,” said Lorgat.
While the 2015 World Cup will be a 14-team competition the 2019 World Cup will be a scaled-down 10-team event, with the top eight places being awarded to the top-ranked teams and two berths being awarded in a pre-qualifying tournament.
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September 18th 2011 @ 11:47am
Timmuh said | September 18th 2011 @ 11:47am | Report comment
This is good for 2015, but the reverting back to a 10 team tournament beyond that is destructive. Admittedly, with a qualifying system in place its better than was originally mooted but still a big step backwards for the game of cricket – particularly if after 2020 there are hopes for 12 Test nations with Ireland and Afghanistan looking reasonable chance to belong in the elite category by then (the 2012-2020 FTP would appear to kill off any hopes of either getting such status any earlier, though the FTP usually gets over-ridden at the whim of India and Australia anyway).
This type of pure bloody-mindedness from the big nations, along with a focus on the non-cricket of T20, could very easily bring the game to its knees rapidly.
September 18th 2011 @ 11:49am
Johnno said | September 18th 2011 @ 11:49am | Report comment
World cups should be just that tight short sharp contests , not a trial for minnows players to develop and get county contracts.
The rugby world cup has been good, but i would like it to go to 16 teams like before. make it elite all games or most will be tough, and cut throat.