CHENNAI: Ireland’s dramatic giant-killing World Cup win over England could be repeated in future despite a decision to reduce the event to 10 teams, world cricket’s top administrator said Saturday.
As there are only 10 Test-playing countries, many second-tier or associate nations such as Ireland fear they could be frozen out by the move.
Ireland created one of the great World Cup shocks by beating England by three wickets in Bangalore on Wednesday, with Kevin O’Brien scoring the fastest hundred in the tournament’s history.
International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat said provided there was a “sufficiently robust qualification process,” future upsets could still be possible.
“It’s a balance we’re trying to achieve in top-class competition, the opportunity for developing nations and to have the 10 best teams at the World Cup,” Lorgat said.
He said the qualification system would be discussed at the next ICC executive board meeting in April.
“If there is a qualification process that is robust enough, no doubt any team could come through.
“It’s not at all related to the question of getting funds from the event. It’s the balance we try to achieve between excellent competition and the development of the game.
“We are blessed with three formats. We believe the Twenty20 format is the one we could use primarily to develop the game. We’ve expanded that to 16 teams.
“We believe that if qualification was the route through to the World Cup, that would make for a far better World Cup from a competitive point of view.”
Ireland have just one more ODI, against England in Dublin in August, to play this year after the World Cup. Lorgat said the global governing body had urged the Test elite to pay more attention to those in the second tier.
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