Sunil Gavaskar giving his backing to the 10-team World Cup next year in England is totally unjustified and unfair.
This goes entirely against the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to promote the game globally to attract interest in the game. The World Cup always accommodated associate members to spread awareness among potential Test nations.
Ireland and Afghanistan have already made it to the Test level and Scotland and UAE may, at some point, follow suit.
Gavaskar cannot just brush aside their performances by saying that they did not make it through the qualifiers. Unlike football, where there are many teams trying to jostle for a place, cricket has much fewer teams.
Ireland and Scotland have played in the World Cup before and done reasonable well. Ireland, in fact, reached the Super 8 stage in their debut World Cup in 2007 in South Africa.
The qualifiers for this World Cup were not ideal with no DRS in place and Scotland were hard done by with some decisions.
But the point of the matter is not that. Why were the teams reduced to 10 when there were 12 teams in the last edition?
The harsh truth is that money matters for the ICC. It’s all about television viewership and how to rake in money from TV rights. Unfortunately the ICC is not doing its job and is a slave to the interests of the big cricket boards like India, Australia and England.
Every team deserves a chance if it is reasonable enough to take on the best. Both Ireland and Scotland have done so since their emergence.
See the FIFA World Cup where not all teams are equally matched and even a side like Mexico can upset defending champions Germany.
The ICC must decide which direction it is taking. If the lure of the lucre is the final goal, then let the elite teams play among themselves and the rest be damned.
Gavaskar should surely know that when he came into cricket India were no hot shots at the game. The rest of the world treated India as a non-entity in Test cricket and often send B teams to play in the country.
It took India some time to carve an identity as a top-notch Test team. And Gavaskar himself played a major hand in making India a force to reckon with.
Fortunately in the early days there was not much television coverage or too many Test matches played which meant that there was no pressure on the boards.
The ICC has done great disservice to two good emerging nations. Ireland’s Test debut against Pakistan was wonderful and not many teams had that kind of start. Scotland recently thrashed England in a one-dayer and threw open the debate about their participation in the World Cup.
It must be agreed that the ICC acts in a slow and ponderous manner and is always averse to change. By this near sighted move to cut the teams in the World Cup, it has gone back many steps in its drive to promote the game.
The world of cricket needs surprise elements to make World Cup tournaments successful. Like football and tennis, one never knows from where the champions will emerge.
Instead of counting the cash, the ICC should pitch on to promote the game.
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#All views expressed in this column are the authors and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them.
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