World Cup
2019
How Does The
ICC Manage Simultaneously To Get Things So Right And So Wrong?
March 23rd 2018
Today, we have seen the end of a wonderful tournament, apart from a
rather irrelevant Final, which has all the cards to be a depressing anti-climax.
The World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Zimbabwe has seen drama to the last ball
and at least one match was played in a packed stadium, with closed gates. It is
believed that the Zimbabwe v UAE game, that could have seen Zimbabwe qualify,
is the first time that the ground has been full to its 22000 capacity to the
point that the ground authorities have had to close the gates: and that, to
watch the UAE play!
For once, the ICC has got something absolutely, totally right. Instead
of pitching a group of Associates into the World Cup based on rankings –
themselves calculated from a handful of games – they have matched the weakest
Full Members and the strongest Associates in a qualifying tournament, with a
feeder tournament that allowed smaller teams a route to a potential World Cup
match with India or Australia at Lord’s.
The great winner of the feeder events was probably the romantic story of
the tournament. In 2008, two of the sides buried in Division 5 of the World
Cricket League were Afghanistan and Nepal. While Afghanistan’s rise was
meteoric, Nepal’s, handicapped by a chaotic administration and the
after-effects of the catastrophic earthquake, has been slower, but steady. In
February, they were in Namibia for Division 2 of the World Cricket League, with
its prize: a place in the World Cup Qualifying Tournament.
Only the top two of Canada, Kenya, Namibia, Nepal, Oman and UAE were
going to qualify. In a blanket finish, four of Nepal’s matches went to
last-over finishes: three of them were won in dramatic fashion (two by a single
wicket, capped by an astonishing win against Canada), while the other, allowed
UAE join the triple-tie for second and reach the qualifying tournament on Net
Run Rate. For the Nepali cricketers, playing against sides with a World Cup
tradition like Kenya, Namibia and Canada must have felt amazing; to top the
table and have a chance to play against Full Members must have made the players
feel that they had died and gone to heaven. Nepal only won two matches, but
their victory against Papua New Guinea, to place Nepal in the seventh place
play-off game, gave them ODI status for the next four years. For a small, poor
country in Asia, this achievement has given the players and their country an
incredible pride and self-belief. Nepal may not reach the heights that
Afghanistan have, but do not bet against them becoming Full Members in a decade
or so: Afghanistan have shown them that it is possible.
Teams currently in Division Five of the World Cricket League include
Jersey, Germany and Ghana. They have seen how two, former Division Five sides
have now risen to Full ODI status and know that the dream is possible. Like the
pyramid in English football that allows a pub team to aspire one day to reach
the Premier League, teams such a Norway, Germany, Surinam or Brazil can develop
and grow and one day, maybe reach the World Cup itself. That is a magnificent
development for cricket.
The World Cup Qualifying Tournament has seen drama from start to finish.
In one of the early games Afghanistan’s last pair failed by just three runs to
topple Zimbabwe. After three successive defeats, Afghanistan needed Zimbabwe to
beat Hong Kong and then to beat Nepal themselves and, finally, for Nepal to
surprise Hong Kong, just to get into the Super Sixes. They also needed the
margins in the three games to turn out right to ensure that Nepal and Hong Kong
both stayed behind on Net Run Rate. It was like putting one coin in the slot
machine and winning the jackpot.
However, with teams carrying forward their points from other qualifiers
in the group, Afghanistan started 2 points behind Ireland, 3 behind Scotland
and Zimbabwe and 4 behind the West Indies. They had to win all three Super
Sixes match and then have other results fall for them. Zimbabwe only had to
beat an outclassed UAE in their final match to eliminate Afghanistan. UAE had
not looked like challenging any of the other Super Six sides. Even when
Duckworth-Lewis modified the target to 230 from 40 overs, Zimbabwe’s massive
experience and array of talent should have knocked the target off easily: maybe
they were over-confident but, somehow, they fell just short and Afghanistan lived…
just. Even then they had to beat Ireland.
So, everything came down to one, last game. Ireland v Afghanistan – the winner
would qualify for the World Cup. However, if the match were rained-off (and
several games, especially in the warm-ups, had suffered very badly), Ireland
would lead a quadruple tie on 5 points on Net Run Rate. There was though
another scenario and, as the chase got tighter and tighter, it started to raise
its head: a tie would put Zimbabwe through on Net Run Rate.
In the end, a single, poor over from Durham’s Barry McCarthy was
probably the difference between the two sides. It went to the last over… just,
but that one over gave Afghanistan momentum in a chase that seemed to be
slipping away. Cricket can be cruel.
Here, the crass stupidity of the ICC shone through. We had had a
brilliant tournament, with some good cricket played, passion and support from
the fans, but the dictates of a smaller tournament meant that only two of West
Indies, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Ireland and Afghanistan, all of whom have played
some superb cricket, could qualify.
The ICC has rightly been condemned for ridiculously long tournaments in
the past (the World Cup in the West Indies seemed to last for ever). And for
some pretty silly formats. They have also fiddled with the format time and
again to try and ensure that never again will India or Pakistan fail to reach
the second phase (too expensive in lost TV rights). They have had tournaments
in which a side such as Australia only needed to beat The Netherlands and
Namibia to reach the second phase. If there are too many teams, we have too
many meaningless and unattractive matches and a tournament that seems to imitate
the Hundred Years War.
That said, the smaller teams need to play the bigger teams to evolve and
improve and need to play several games, not just one. That is what has been
wonderful about the World Cup Qualifier. And, for the West Indies and Zimbabwe
it has been a reality check: it is all very well for Jason Holder to talk about
winning the World Cup, but they only barely beat Scotland on D/L, lost to
Afghanistan and were pushed very hard by Zimbabwe – that is not the sort of
form to strike terror into India, or Australia… or even England.
The ICC has gone from one ridiculous extreme to another. While a
sixteen-team World Cup is too many at present (although the gap in the eight teams
below the top eight is closing rapidly), to have just ten teams is too few.
Twelve would have been a reasonable compromise and, on this scenario, Scotland
and Zimbabwe would have joined the West Indies and Afghanistan in the World
Cup. With three groups of four, the top
two and the two best third place sides qualifying for the Quarter-Finals, the
tournament would be compact and there would be a chance of one or more of the
qualifiers making the knock-out stages. Add a Plate Tournament for the sides
that do not reach the Quarter Finals and each team is guaranteed a minimum of
four matches, but there would be just twenty-eight matches in all.
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