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10 Test status nations in 140 years of cricket is not good enough

Roar Rookie
25th February, 2015
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Ireland have made great progress in cricket recently.
Roar Rookie
25th February, 2015
2

For the second time in as many tournaments, the ICC has announced the next World Cup will be reduced to 10 teams.

The last time, in 2011, caused an uproar from the associate nations resulting in an ICC backflip.

But here they are again, making the announcement for the 2019 World Cup, and once again the associates are protesting.

And it’s hard to argue with them. So far in this World Cup we’ve seen Ireland make further claims to their Test ambitions with a win over West Indies. Scotland come within three wickets of a win over one of the World Cup fancies in New Zealand, and Sri Lanka got a narrow escape against World Cup debutants Afghanistan.

At the very least the associates have been competitive so far on the biggest stage one-day cricket has to offer. Why then does the ICC want to restrict these teams from exposure to the big tournaments?

They say it’s to protect the standard of the World Cup, as near every tournament we see a minnow nation upset one of the big boys, then by the next World Cup they seem to be replaced with another minnow in qualifiers.

The issue the ICC has with these teams is between World Cups their exposure is almost non-existent. Boards have no real chance to continue whatever momentum gained from World Cup exposure, no real chance to keep the game in the minds of the public. No matter how big or small the interest, there are very limited chances to grow the game’s profiles in different markets.

Since cricket’s very first Test match in 1877 only 10 other nations have gained Test match status. What other international sport has such a slow rate of development?

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It’s bewildering how the ICC can seemingly sit on their hands and not push the game even harder in new developing markets, especially when Ireland have proven that with the chance to develop there can be success.

Instead Ireland, while waiting for Test status, have to watch home-grown players head over to England to play international cricket – Eoin Morgan and Boyd Rankin have in Tests, while Ed Joyce played ODIs for England. Despite Ireland losing some of their most talented to English cricket, they are still putting out a competitive side – almost certainly a side better than some Test playing nations.

Meanwhile, what Afghanistan, another associate, has been able to achieve in such a short time under the extreme difficulties the country as a whole has been under is massive. Imagine what they might be able to achieve if given a real crack at it?

Maybe it’s time we saw the ICC put in some serious investment in the growth of the game, the growth of the ‘minnow’ nations, rather than letting the same small pool of teams fight it out time and time again.

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