The ICC has been savaged by almost the entire cricket-writing fraternity for its decision to make the next World Cup, in Australia and New Zealand in 2015, a ten-team competition.
Instinctively I want to support the Associate nations too, who will now be deprived of a chance to compete at cricket’s top table. I even almost joined this Facebook group.
But then I looked at the facts, and, for perhaps the first time ever, I sided with the ICC. Only one of the lesser teams has actually made any positive impression in this tournament – Ireland. The rest have been mostly hopelessly outclassed.
Match 2 set the tone – New Zealand needing only eight overs to overhaul Kenya’s risible score of 69 - and it hasn’t got much better since. Apart from Ireland, of course.
The presence of Canada at cricket’s premier tournament reminds me of the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, which included a team called New Zealand Maori. Like both codes of rugby, there is no point in cricket trying to pretend that it is a world game - comparisons to the behemoth that is FIFA’s Football World Cup are pointless.
And it should be remembered that while the ICC are removing four slots from the 50-over World Cup, they are adding four to the 20-over version. The shorter the game, the more likely it is that the lesser-skilled team will win.
It pains me to say it, but, for once, the short-sighted, money-grabbing buffoons of the ICC may have done something sensible. The only danger now is that the World Twenty20 might lose its concentrated thrill. But that surely is a risk worth taking.
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