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Joined October 2013
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Johnnie Walker - "Keep Walking"
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Great article mate. Agree with everything you said. I also agree with pjm and strongly believe that the Associates should be playing more 50-over and 20-over cricket against the Test playing nations between the World Cups. Playing against them for a month then not at all for the next 47 months is ridiculous. In terms of raw talent, Ireland and Afghanistan are right up there with the best nations in the world. But they lack experience and they especially lack funding to develop their cricket further. In other news, Nepal is currently building a cricket stadium with a 40000 capacity. They have a strong love for the game like their subcontinental neighbours but again are poor and underdeveloped. There is so much potential for growth.
16 teams in the World T20 is a bare minimum. If Associates get more of a chance to play between the 4 year World Cup cycle, 12 teams may be the way to go in the near future. You only take take one game from India (whose control of the cricket economy isn’t going away) but reduce the overall number of games by 12.
Finally it’s worth remembering that Sri Lanka was for a long time an Associate nation getting thrashed by the big boys for decades before improving drastically and eventually winning the World Cup in 1996. Heck, Ireland will be far more competitive as a Test playing nation than South Africa was in the early 1900’s when England and Australia slaughtered them at ease. You need to be patient to grow the game and sadly many people in the ICC lack that patience.
Why this World Cup has shown that we need associate nations
Hope the Thunder restrict the Strikers’ total to no more than 140. On this two-paced wicket and with their history of choking, anything higher will be tough for them.
Sydney Thunder vs Adelaide Strikers: Big Bash League live scores, blog
Australia’s bowling attack feels too same old same old with the exception of Faulkner. For the GABBA test, we should just hope that the pitch doesn’t flatten out from the 2nd innings onwards otherwise feelings of déjà vu will come haunting back.
The Siddle riddle
The BCCI for all their issues seem to be helping Afghanistan for the moment. Not as much as Pakistan obviously but they definitely aren’t hostile to the rise of the Afghans. They let Afghanistan compete in the 2014 Asia Cup which gave the emerging nation a 50-over game each against India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. A great learning curve for them. And they beat Bangladesh. And best of all none of the Afghanistan players are “imports” or migrants. The locals have developed a love for the game.
The BCCI have not helped Ireland at all but then again it should be England’s responsibility to help out its neighbours in the game. Likewise Australia and New Zealand should continue to help PNG develop in the game (they’ve already started to help which is a great start). Similarly, South Africa should give a hand to Zimbabwe, Kenya and Namibia while the West Indies should help out Bermuda and North America.
Wrt India’s chances, because the pitches deteriorate and become slower towards the end of the summer of India’s massive crowd support there won’t be much difference between a home game and away game for India come finals time. Tests are another matter but they can spring a surprise in the limited overs formats even outside of home IMO.
ICC’s contempt for associates exposed for its naivety after UAE-Ireland blockbuster