I was spurred into this by a post on Big Cricket, saying Zimbabwe should be removed from International Status. Ricky Pontings recent comments also got under my skin, especially as he was last year saying how the spread of the game should be increased. Cross posted on Big Cricket:
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All teams should play international cricket. There is now a promotion/relegation system that allows the Associate and Affiliate members to move up or down the tiers/grades depending on their performance. It would be a very small step to include the full members in that system for ODIs: Instead of all Test nations automatically qualifying for the World Cup, only the top 10 ranked nations qualify automatically (like the Champions Trophy now). The rest have to go through the ICC Trophy to qualify. If a team like Zimbabwe slips enough in the rankings, or an Associate, such as Kenya rises above them, this is only fair.
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Similarly with Test status: At the end of the Intercontinental Cup, the winner plays off against the lowest ranked Test nation in say a three match Test series hosted by the Test nation. The winner joins the Test calendar (taking over the existing fixtures if it is the Associate), the loser returns to the Intercontinental cup. That way, standards are maintained, but there is the incentive for the Associates.
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This is not rocket science. There are precedents in several other sports, for example Davis Cup tennis. It would not be hard to implement, and would put pressure on teams to not only improve their standards, but to maintain them. It would also prevent people who should know better making daft comments that do not help cricket.
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2 comments:
Here is a legitimate question and excuse my ignorance in this area, but for countries where cricket is clearly not a mainstream sport, this seems to be a fairly taxing travel schedule.
I am assuming there isn't a large amount of money going the players way, in say Nepal, how are these players expected to travel the world (taking cost and other work committments into account), and put a side on the field that is good enough, to win and earn the right to play in the big - by which time I guess money becomes less of a problem. (Ironic, you're only earning enough to travel, once you probably aren't paying for it yourself anyway).
Do you know if the ICC foots the bill for all this travel, or subsidises it in anyway?
In the old days where holding down a job etc, was the norm for Test players, at least all teams were in the same boat. The road for a country like Ireland, or even Kenya to full competitive Test status, must be very, very long and rocky, if not impossible. I guess that is a point of your blog.
This is a very valid point. Kenya are missing at least two players who would probably have travelled: Hitesh Modi and Mohammed Sheikh due to not being able to pay their airfares from overseas, or not being able to take time off work.
This is where sponsorship has to come in, as well as funding. Currently ICC funding is to be used for development, so couldn't help (I think a good thing, otherwise development may well be left alone). In the past for Kenya, sponsorship has come from travel agents and airlines, so hopefully, this will start to happen again soon.
It is a tough road for the Associates, but I don't think impossible. They do however need all the help they can get.
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