Slimlined 2019 World Cup not set in stone

ICC boss Richardson says debate on number of teams at showpiece will take place later

T he number of teams taking part in the 2019 World Cup hasn’t been finalised, the International Cricket Council said on Friday as it responded to growing criticism that its proposed cut risked damaging the sport’s development.

Cricket chiefs have come under fire for their plan to reduce the number of teams involved in England in four years’ time to 10 from the 14 taking part in the ongoing tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

But ICC chief executive David Richardson, in a telephone interview with AFP, said: “I’ve learnt never to say never to anything. I’m sure the format of the next World Cup will be debated after this one has finished.”

Ireland beat one of the elite Test match nations for the third successive World Cup when they beat the West Indies by four wickets in their 2015 opener, while Thursday saw tournament debutants Afghanistan’s astonishingly rapid progress continue when they beat Scotland by just one wicket to record their first World Cup win.

“The question is what do you want the World Cup to be? Do you want it to be a jamboree of world cricket or the pinnacle of the one-day game?

“Heading into this tournament there was criticism that the format [where 14 teams are split into two groups of seven, with the top four in each pool qualifying for the quarterfinals] would leave us with a long group stage, at the end of which the eight teams everyone thought would get through had made it into the quarter-finals.”

Improved showing

Asked what his feelings were following the initially improved showing by the four Associate sides — Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and the UAE — at the World Cup, Richardson said: “There’s a sense of relief. Our biggest concern before the tournament was that these teams would be uncompetitive.”

An online petition calling for the ICC to abandon its plan to reduce the number of teams in 2019 has already gathered more than 13,000 signatures.

But Richardson said the thinking in reducing the number of teams had been motivated by trying to get as near to the “best format” 1992 World Cup.

The nine sides taking part in Australia and New Zealand 23 years ago all played each other, with the top four going straight into the semi-finals.

But Richardson denied the 2019 World Cup would be a ‘closed shop’ of the elite Testplaying nations.

As things stand, the eight top-ranked one-day sides as of September 30, 2017, will qualify automatically, with the final two spots to be decided by a qualifying tournament in Bangladesh in 2018.