ICC agrees to give minnows World Cup lifeline

World cricket’s governing body opened the door Monday for non-Test playing nations to compete in the next World Cup, reversing a bar that had outraged ‘minnows’ such as Ireland and Holland.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) in a statement said its chief executives’ committee had recommended a qualifying process for the 2015 tournament, without specifying how many teams it wanted to see taking part.

The recommendation rows back on the ICC’s unpopular decision to limit the 2015 World Cup, in Australia and New Zealand, to the 10 full-member teams — excluding Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada, Kenya and other countries.

“The CEC recommended that there should be a qualification process for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 but did not make a recommendation to the ICC executive board on the number of teams that should compete in the event to be held in Australia and New Zealand,” the ICC said in a statement.

ICC president Sharad Pawar had asked his board to discuss the matter at the conference, with the governing body looking to avoid a repeat of the seven-week World Cup, deemed by some critics as unnecessarily lengthy.

Officials are believed to be in favour of retaining a 10-team limit but a qualifying tournament would give minor nations a chance of reaching the event.

The CEC also agreed to restrict the elective powerplays in One-day Internationals — two blocks of five overs when only two fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle — to between the 16th and 40th overs of each innings and also to the use of two new balls per innings, one from each end.

Powerplays, introduced in 2005 to add excitement to the 50-over format, place restrictions on fielding positions and are designed to give a temporary advantage to the batting side.

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: “Even though the success of 50-over cricket played during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 was universally acknowledged, the CEC rightly supported the enhancements recommended by the ICC Cricket Committee to strengthen the format further, including encouraging members to trial some specific innovations in their domestic cricket.”

The committee approved recommendations to continue research into the use of different colour balls in day/night Test matches and the directive that batsmen can be given out for obstructing the field if they change their direction when running between the wickets to block a run-out chance.

Meanwhile, England and Australia will play 10 back-to-back Ashes Tests as part of the new future tours program agreed at the meeting.

Andrew Strauss’s side face Australia at home in the English summer of 2013 and then will do it all again Down Under in the Australian summer.
The series form part of the Future Tours Programme (FTP) for the period from 2012 to 2020 finalised on Monday.

The back-to-back Ashes schedule is a result of Australia hosting the World Cup in 2015, when the return Ashes would normally be played.
The FTP also contains an official two-week window in September for the Champions League Twenty20 each year.—

news covered by dawn sports