Chief Executive Update: ICC World Cup decision
Cricket Scotland Chief Executive Roddy Smith offers this update on the ICC's decision to have a ten team, full member only World Cup in 2015...
Cricket Scotland shares the huge disappointment that has been felt throughout the Associate and Affiliate world following the decision to make the next World Cup a closed competition for the ten full members of the ICC. The arguments against this format have been discussed in detail across the media in recent days, and CS certainly shares the views of all of the non-Test world.
The original decision to reduce the competition to a 10-team event was challenged and opposed vigorously by the leading Associates and Affiliates. This ultimately had to be accepted, but the hope was always that there would be a qualification event to allow the best Associates/Affiliates an opportunity to challenge the lowest-ranked full members for the final places in 2015. For this to be taken away for the leading Associate and Affiliate countries is a massive backward step for the long-term development of the game. Whichever way the decision is justified - and the cricketing world is still awaiting an explanation - it is simply wrong and against everything that sport is based on – fair competition and meritocracy.
Since the announcement, I have been in contact with our fellow Associate and Affiliate countries to discuss the issue and start the process to formulate a response on behalf of 95 of the 105 ICC members. Unfortunately, the governance structure of the ICC does not work in our favour, but we are all determined to investigate all possibilities to keep this issue on the table. The ICC’s Annual Conference is not until late June, which will give the members time to consider the issue in great detail and formulate a collective response.
Cricket Scotland and the highest-ranked non-full members must now address our own playing programme and funding issues over the next four years. It has been incredibly difficult for all the countries to put together a fixture structure for this season, let alone the next few years. All the countries want a long-term structure and security of funding so we can plan for the longer term, not from season to season. This will be a priority in the coming weeks and months and we will work closely with the ICC to make this happen. The ICC is the primary funder of the high-performance programme in all the Associate countries, and I am sure this will continue, irrespective of the decision in relation to the 2015 CWC.
Finally, in respect of the increased number of teams in the World T20: Cricket Scotland welcomes this expansion, but it does not, in any way, recompense the countries for losing out on the possibility of playing in the next 50-over World Cup. T20 is one of the three formats of the game, but is not the one that the leading non-Test countries want to prioritise above the other two.
The Board of Cricket Scotland will next meet on the 19 April, at which time it will discuss the decision and its ramifications in detail.
6 April 2011
