The ICC full members are claiming they want a shorter World Cup in 2015, but if the minimum “48 game agreement” goes ahead it will not be a short tournament at all. Far from it in fact.
Cricket’s emerging nations are set to be eliminated from future World Cup events. They are the scapegoats in this horrible episode.
The public are being sold a lie.
The broadcaster wants to make as much money as possible and that requires India and possibly one other super power to stay in the tournament for as long as possible and play as many games as possible. In return, the full members and the ICC want the highest possible dividend from ESPN or any other broadcaster when the rights come up for negotiation again in 2015. So both parties collude for the sake of the dollar. A 10 team 2015 World Cup is their short sighted solution.
There are now 95 Associate and Affiliate cricket playing countries with ICC membership. Unbelievably, these 95 members do not get a vote at any of the key strategic ICC meetings. Like the one coming up on October 11, which will decide their World Cup qualification fate. No other major sport is so undemocratic.
Countries like Ireland have proven in 2007 that they have the ability to knock out powerful nations early on in the tournament. The standard of the other leading associates has also improved dramatically since that time. Most of the players from the leading Associate countries are now fully or semi-professional. Many are contracted to English counties.
As we all know, Eoin Morgan, a product of the Ireland development program and member of their 2007 World Cup squad, is now qualified with England and is considered by many to be “their” most exciting prospect. Of course Ed Joyce came before him. Incredibly, the English are reportedly eyeing off 21 year old Holland batsman Alexei Kervezee who was recruited to county cricket by Worcestershire about three years ago.
Worryingly for Ireland, there are now nearly 20 of their players signed to English counties and county academies. After four years playing in England, they qualify for the English national side.
Not only are the full members denying the right of the associates to play in the World Cup, they are also pinching their best players. This will esculate if associate and affiliate cricketers are unable to reach the pinnacle of their sport playing for their own countries. What other choice will they have?
Upset results are now a very real possibility. One-sided matches aren’t the real problem. All sports have those. The emerging nations have actually become a threat in a short space of time. So to eliminate risk, a 10 team tournament has been devised which will most likely feature only the 10 full members. Each team plays each other on a round-robin basis and then the top four go straight to a semi-final. This means that each full member, including India, last all the way through to at least the third or fourth last day of the cup. That adds up to 48 matches exactly.
It’s high-fives all-round for the full members and the broadcaster but it isn’t ethical and it isn’t in the long term interest of the sport. It could kill off cricket in a number of associate and affiliate countries. Cricket can’t afford that. It’s already on shaky ground.
When the ICC development program really swung into action in 2001, there were only about 90,000 players in the associate and affiliate countries. Now there are nearly 500,00. That information can be found on the ICC’s own official website. The growth of the game beyond the full member nations has been remarkable. Kids all over the world now want to play cricket, from Ireland to Iran and from Brazil to Botswana.
Ireland’s efforts in the 2007 World Cup have served as an inspiration to all the emerging nations. The Irish proved that the associates and affiliates belong at the World Cup. Now every Associate and Affiliate cricketing nation wants to replicate what Ireland achieved in 2007 and are working tirelessly to improve standards and realise the World Cup dream. Why would anybody want to take that dream away? Yet, this is what the 10 full members are planning.
Consider these facts:
The 2007 World Cup lasted 51 days from March 13 until April 28.
The group stage featuring the 10 full members and the associates lasted only 13 days from March 13 until March 25.
The Super Eight stage which was “supposed” to feature only full members, lasted a whopping 26 days from March 27 until April 21.
There was also seven rest days set aside while the semi-finals and final were spread over five days.
So why are the associate countries being blamed for the long tournament?
The full members in conjunction with the broadcaster are spinning a cunning mistruth and there are very few journalists that are in a position to challenge what is being said. Afterall, the official broadcaster also owns the leading cricket website and has a stake in many other information outlets.
Of course, some of the journalists really don’t want the game to expand beyond it’s traditional boundaries. Having a nice cozy small number of old guard nations playing the sport gives them comfort in a nostalgic kind of way – a bit like one of mother’s good old Sunday dinners.
A proposed 48 match tournament for 2015 will last only fractionally less than in 2007 because broadcasters are usually unwilling to televise more than one match simultaneously.
This was demonstrated in 2007 when only one super-8 match per day was fixtured. Even in the 2011 event, there are 16 matches to be played as stand-alone fixtures during the group stage.
Meanwhile other sports continue to encourage emerging nations to their flagship events. The rugby world cup is contested by 20 nations – the basketball world cup by 24 and even Baseball’s World Classic is expanding to 20 countries in 2013.
Cricket is the only sport that is pushing away eager new markets and all because in the short term the powers that be want as many matches featuring India telecast as is possible in one event.
Consider another World Cup format option. 16 nations, Four groups of four, 31 matches, including quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. It would be all over far quicker than 2015 version that the ICC and the 10 full members are proposing and it would strike the perfect balance between incentive for the up and coming nations and context for the already established.
Cricket Australia, usually an independent voter, is tipped to side with India and the other cricket powers and vote for a 10 team 2015 World Cup featuring only the full members.
For the long term future of the sport, Australia must consider all 105 ICC members at the October 11 board meeting.
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