How Precious Can You Get?

The ICC, in another of those jaw-dropping moves it is infamous for, announced even before the Final of the World Cup had been played, that the 2015 event will be restricted to the ten full members of the ICC. That's right, only the teams who are qualified to play Test cricket will be allowed to play in the World Cup finals ... a 50 over competition.

Scratching your head? It gets better. Zimbabwe - one of the chosen ten teams - hasn't played Test cricket since September 2005 and despite the ICC Future Test Program saying otherwise, it has no Test cricket on the near horizon. Not only that, but if ratings on the ICC ODI table were the guide, it would be Ireland in the final spot. No qualification tournament, no place at the main table and no correspondence entered into.

There was wide talk during the World Cup from learned cricketers who have swapped open neck whites for colour co-ordinated coats and ties and from the boof heads at the local pub, that there were too many meaningless games played on the way to some extraordinary cricket during the final eight knockout phase - now known as the South Africa Phase (SAP). There is a certain truth in that claim but much of it comes down to programming. Had the playing schedule been tighter and not strongly dictated by the potential viewer numbers for TV networks, perhaps this would not have been such an issue. In Australia, those of us who belief that we should all have access to the best quality sport without the need for shelling out extra hard earned, had our beliefs rebutted by the pathetic coverage offered by the Nine Network. We saw a little more than half the Final and then only because Dhoni's side bowled so slowly.

Matches should have been happening at least every second day. The fitness and injury factor then comes into play as it should in all sporting events. With results coming thick and fast, its doubtful that the so called boring games against the associates would have mattered. Besides, explain to England how the games against the associates are boring!

This decision has more to do with bums on seats and viewers than anything else. CA, long believers in not wasting the chance for a buck, would not have wanted Holland and Canada playing to 14 people at the SCG. The solution was one they have used often enough in the past when playing Tests against Bangladesh in Cairns and Darwin. Take the associates to the Northern Territory and large regional centres where Shield matches have been ... Lismore, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle, Cairns, Bunburry ... to name just a few of the cricket thirsty bush settlements who would guarantee ten thousand people and their kids.
One suspects the other culprit in this decision are results at the last two World Cup events which have embarrassed some of the full members of the ICC and in the case of England this year, nearly cost them a place in the SAP. Ireland have been Jacks in a Box, surprising Pakistan and Bangladesh and this year, that devastating victory over England. Had they not been playing, the game would have been robbed of the fastest century in World Cup history. Let's not forget that only a week or so earlier, the Netherlands came within a whisker of also beating England . Bangladesh, rated 9th in the Top Ten, knocked off India and South Africa last time and also joined the group which beat England this time around.

Its these unpredictable results that ensure the ICC uses that wily bird the Round Robin as its nesting habit for the super teams as they settle into the tournament. Marketability might be one thing on their minds but as any tennis promoter will tell you, its all about making sure the right players are in the final. In essence, Ireland of late and teams like Scotland in the past, who entered World Cup Finals hoping to do betond their best and grow their cricketing nation in the process, have now done so well they are being removed. Some call that irony but most would prefer to call it injustice.

The ICC has offered two olive branches, both bitter with the taste of power and influence. Firstly, their will be a qualification process for the 2019 tournament, whether by ranking or match play has been sufficiently vaguely stated to removed all responsibility and secondly, the World Twenty20 tournament will be expanded to twenty teams. Big deal to both suggestions.

Predictably and rightly, the associates have been outraged by the decision, with Ireland voicing the disapproval the loudest. "Its an absolute joke," says the Irish Captain, William Portfield. "We have done everything they asked of us over the last few years in terms of restructuring Irish cricket and I can't come to terms with how they can just shut us out, do away with the qualification period and then try and call this a World Cup."
The Irish are not alone, with Scotland, Bermuda, Canada and Kenya all adding their voices to a righteous din. Perhaps the most interesting of the strident complainers is Australian Malcolm Speed, a former Chief Executive of the ICC who has described the decision as insular, backward looking and self-serving. He is concerned it represents a retreat from gains made in spreading the game globally during the last ten years.

"The decision strikes me as an insular, parochial decision that just perpetuates the 10 full-member countries, who are actually full members because they are Test-playing countries. They're not full members because they're ODI-playing countries, they are chosen because they can sustain Test cricket. But other countries are then excluded from the major one-day tournament, so I think it's a very insular, backward-looking decision. I would've preferred a system where the last two full-member countries in the one-day rankings are challenged by the top two Associate members, but it seems that's not going to happen."

Perhaps Gary Glitter understood ICC policy as far back as the 1970's ... wanna be in my gang, my gang ...
This is a poor decision but not unexpected. The ICC, increasingly threatened by the gypsies, tramps and thieves of the IPL and portents of other privately owned and run cricket events, have put their Bollywood wagons in a circle and are dancing about in brightly coloured clothing, sipping Chai or gulping arrack ... and pretending everything is alright. They have missed their aim. This time, I think their foot is safe but I'm not certain about their head.