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To slightly alter one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines: ‘to include or not to include, that is the question’, with the include referring to the Associate nations currently doing their utmost to cause a few bloody noses in Australasia.
After every decent showing from the non-Test match countries or every limp showing from the big boys – in fact after every game whether it’s a relevant point or not – the question of the 10-team 2019 World Cup is raised.
Ireland beat the West Indies so why aren’t they guaranteed a place next time?
Scotland against Afghanistan was closer than New Zealand against England/West Indies versus Pakistan, but they might never be seen again.
UAE were thrashed by India but they won’t improve if they don’t play.
You’ve probably got the picture by now. All of the above can be prove a point just as all of the above can do the opposite. Think of the old adage about statistics.
Anyway, the 10-team format pencilled in for four years time has rattled enough cages – so much so that a petition has been launched to encourage the ICC to change their minds.
Isn’t that what happens when governments introduce unwelcome legislation?
I may be in the minority and playing devil’s advocate to some degree but the 10-team format isn’t the demonic piece of work that many imagine.
In a purely sporting context, an everybody plays everybody format is preferable to the one currently being ground out.
The 1992 edition of the tournament has yet to be bettered for that reason and I’d much rather watch games that have something riding on them than a fortnight of filling in the calendar.
That said, I can see the argument for an expanded event to give those in the second tier a bite of the cake, but it’s the instantaneous judgements reached that rankle.
A couple of good performances shouldn’t be the cause for promotion just as a couple of shabby ones shouldn’t equal demotion. The issue is how the 10 teams are decided.
As there is no structure to the one-day international game outside of the World Cup and Champions Trophy, a definitive rankings system is nigh on impossible to formulate.
England play Australia more than enough but not Pakistan. Australia haven’t faced New Zealand for goodness knows how long but are always up against India.
Ireland rarely play anybody and there is more where that comes from. The result is an unbalanced league table that tells you next to nothing other than who is in good form.
This might not be a problem if only so many countries had official ODI status, leaving the others to battle it out in a qualifying tournament for the remaining spots at the marquee event.
But the 2019 competition, I think I’m right in saying, will use the rankings to determine eight of the participants with the other two having to qualify.
If the playing field is so uneven with regards to the number of games being played by individual nations and the opposition lined up, it stands to reason that the qualifying criteria must contain certain flaws. If this is where the Associates feel hard done by then they can hardly be blamed.
Were the ICC to put in place a schedule whereby every official ODI-playing nation played the same number of games in a qualifying period, against the same opposition to everybody else, culminating with the World Cup finals – then the 10-team format wouldn’t create half the controversy.
Of course, this is just throwing a proposal out there with only small thought for the logistical arrangements needed to make it happen, but there is no reason why it couldn’t be attempted.
Those with the financial and historical clout shouldn’t be awarded a free run just as those doing their utmost to compete don’t deserve to be treated as unwelcome guests.
There is a solution to the discord out there, it merely needs a desire to make it come to fruition.