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The Australia team celebrates the dismissal of Pakistan's Kamran Akmal Mitchell Johnson on day 4 of the second test at the SCG in Sydney on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010. (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
A quick show of hands on 13 October was all it took for the ICC and its ten full members to eliminate the ninety-five associate and affiliate countries from the 2015 Cricket World Cup.
It was a decision that will fill the pockets of the few wealthy cricket playing countries and put severe strain on the majority of the 105 ICC members.
The brainchild of Cricket Australia’s James Sutherland, J Srinivas of the BCCI, and David Collier from the ECB, it is a cynical and greedy move designed to appease broadcasters, maximise advertising profits, and ensure that the powerful nations such as India and Australia play as many matches as possible at the 2015 event.
As expected, the ten man ICC board, made up totally of representatives from the ten full members, rubber stamped the proposal, voting for a World Cup that would only feature themselves.
The 95 associate and affiliate members didn’t get a vote. That’s how the ICC works nowadays.
What we now have to look forward to is a 2015 World Cup featuring the same 10 countries that already play endless meaningless one-day internationals.
And it won’t be a shorter World Cup as was promised. The 2011 event has 49 matches scheduled. In 2015 there will be 48 games played.
India and Australia will now play nine matches minimum at the 2015 event, even if they do not reach the semi-final stage. It’s exactly what the broadcaster lobbied for – a set of fixtures that would appeal to the Indian television market. Furthermore, Cricket Australia likes the idea of matches that require a minimum of effort to promote.
Heaven forbid that they should have to sell a match to the public that features a team in orange.
In return, the broadcaster is expected to cough up something in the order of US$1 billion when the next rights deal is up for negotiation in 2015.
Incredibly, the bulk of that money will go straight back to the wealthy ten full members. In another show of disdain for the sport, they hand themselves about 75 per cent of ICC broadcasting money and leave part of the remainder for the 95 countries that need it most.
Consider also that the ten full members are part of the future tours program and are able to sell off home games to local broadcasters and media outlets for a small fortune.
Meanwhile in some of the emerging cricket playing countries, unsung volunteers have to cut bat shapes from trees and beg for second hand equipment from the more fortunate.
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland insists that he knows what is best for the 95 countries, and by all accounts has no need to liaise with them in any way shape or form.
According to an interview in The Sydney Morning Herald, Sutherland was quoted as saying: “Personally, I see Twenty20 as being the opportunity for developing nations, associates and affiliate countries to really focus on the contribution they can make at a high-performance elite level.”
Either Sutherland is incredibly out of touch with the game of cricket around the world or he does not care for the opinions of those that actually play and support the sport in the associate and affiliate nations.
They want to play in the World Cup. Why wouldn’t they?
It is the premier global event for the sport and is the dream of every cricketer whether they play in Australia, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Ireland or any of the other 101 member nations.
How callous of Sutherland to treat their wishes with contempt.
T20 is a great vehicle for the absolute beginner, but cricketers eventually need to test themselves in a more serious environment.
Take Ireland for example. They currently have nearly 20 players on English county or county academy lists plus others who are contracted professionally by their own governing body. They are way past the point of being mere T20 sloggers and the same can now be said in many emerging cricketing countries.
With the full members cutting off access to test cricket, the Champions Trophy, the future Tours program and now the World Cup, what point is there for Ireland’s best to stick around.
Expect them to lose many more Ed Joyces and Eoin Morgans to England from now on, and believe it or not the ECB apparently has their eye on outstanding young Dutch batsman Alexei Kervezee as well.
Even for the nations ranked lower down, the World Cup is still seen as the ultimate goal. It is what inspires coaches, administrators, fans, parents, groundskeepers, scorers and other volunteers to keep pushing on. In fact, the World Cup carrot has been a major factor in the rise of participation rates in the non-test playing countries from around 90,000 in 2002 to 500,000 now.
There are also an estimated 25 million fans in the associate and affiliate countries.
For Sutherland and his full member mates to cut so many people off from the World Cup is shameful act. No amount of money is worth the damage this decision will cause.
Fortunately there is still time to reverse this thoughtless act.
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