Nation And Other Associate Members in Another Tussle With ICC

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

Dun Okinyo And Agencies

1 July 2011

Only three days after ICC succumbed to pressure from Associate nations over the 2015 World Cup berths, the body is once again involved in another tussle with the same group.

This time, the Associate members are up in arms over ICC decision to slash their representation from six to two at the next two World Twenty20 tournaments. After a heated and emotional meeting on Wednesday, the minnows have decided to lodge a formal protest at the full council.

Cricket Kenya (CK), chief executive officer Tom Sears, who is attending the meeting in Hong Kong, described the move as a joke and insisted that reducing won’t help in develop of cricket.

“This is another ploy to deny emerging countries from rising and taking on the big guns. We are not heading anywhere. In fact we are being dragged back as far as globalising of the sport is concerned,” Sears said.

The ICC’s decision is further undermined by the fact that the qualification process for the World Twenty20 is already underway- although it offers just two spots instead of six.

The mood among cricket’s less powerful members was in stark contrast to their initial response to the ICC’s decision to restore Associate representation in the 50-over World Cup on the one hand while cutting the number of participating teams in the newest format from 16 to 12.

“We will challenge that decision, we won’t sit back. It’s about giving opportunity to everybody and globalising the game. We still have time to work on this and we will,” Cassim Sulieman, Africa Cricket Association chief executive told Cricinfo.

The 30 Associate and five Affiliate representatives (representing 60 countries) met on Wednesday afternoon and decided to present their objections to the full council.

The Tuesday decision represents an amazing turnaround in rationale by the ICC after announcing the expansion of the World Twenty20 to 16 teams last September. Nine months later, the reduction in numbers is being informally talked of as the trade-off for the four extra berths in the 2015 World Cup.

“If 16 teams were alright for the T20 yesterday morning, I fail understand why later the same day the number was reduced. The two events should be treated in isolation and on their own merits. Again, in terms of growing the game globally, the board has taken a huge step backwards with this decision,” Sears said

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