Re: ICC confirms 10 teams for next two World Cups
You cannot really blame people for coming up with conspiracy theories of fixed matches when such decisions are dictated by ESPN!
Re: ICC confirms 10 teams for next two World Cups
I think...if the ICC takes into considration 'the equal opportunity for every cricketing nation'...than every nation must be put into the qualification rounds to qualify for the Final round...even the World Champions, Runnerup & the hosting nations have to qualify to get to the Final round...hosting nations do not qualify...no hosting though... :)
Re: ICC confirms 10 teams for next two World Cups
They should have made it 8 full members plus 9th and 10th ranked teams have to fight it out in a four nation qualifiying tournament with Ireland and Holland or any other worthy associates.
That would tell BD to step up their game a bit!
Re: ICC confirms 10 teams for next two World Cups
Saby.. if it HAS to be 10 teams only.. then I'd make it top 6 ODI rankings qualify by default.. and ranks 7-14 teams fight for last 4 spots...
Re: ICC confirms 10 teams for next two World Cups
An extremely idiotic decision. I agree having 4 associates in the world cup diluted the games.
So it should have been the top two which were Ireland and Netherlands. They have improved remarkably and could have given Bangladesh and Zimbabwe a run for their money.
I think 12 Teams, 10 full members plus 2 associates is good.
They all play each other in a round robin format. So each team plays 11 games. The top 4 teams with the most points advance to the semi-finals.
Do you even realise how many games there you are talking about. 12 teams means (11+10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1) 66 round robin games alone + 2 SF + Final or 69 games!! The world cup will be just too long (may span over 2 months!!) and boring. In the recent world cup we had 42 group games + 4 QFs + 2 SFs + Final = 49 games and it spanned a total of 43 days (Feb 19 >> April 02)
England lost Pietersen, Broad and Ajmal Shehzad thru injury & spinner Yardy thru depression. We may well have a situation where key players of almost every major team are carrying some injury going into the semis. Do we really want to see that?
If you want a round robin competition you must limit the max number of teams to 10
I say have 8 established teams (Aus, Eng, India, NZ, Pak, RSA, SLA & Windies) + hold an 8-nation qualifying tournament incl. Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada and Kenya to decide 2 remaining slots
Re: ICC confirms 10 teams for next two World Cups
Saby.. if it HAS to be 10 teams only.. then I'd make it top 6 ODI rankings qualify by default.. and ranks 7-14 teams fight for last 4 spots...
Agreed