The legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar has come in support of International Cricket Council’s decision to reduce the 2019 World Cup to a 10-team affair. He stated that if Associate nations like Ireland and Scotland cannot make it to the World Cup through the Qualifiers, then they don’t deserve to be a part of the mega event.
Gavaskar stated his strong views in his column for the daily Mid-Day. The Associate nations have protested ICC’s decision and the matter came up again after Scotland’s upset win over the world’s top ODI side England in a recent international outing.
In his column, Gavaskar wrote: “Meanwhile Scotland’s surprise win over England has again raised the cry about the number of teams for next year’s World Cup. These people have forgotten that there was a tournament among Associate members and the two of the bottom-ranked Test playing countries to qualify for next year’s World Cup. Afghanistan and West Indies qualified by getting to the finals.”
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He further added, “The point here is simply that if Ireland and Scotland, from where most of the noise comes about the number of teams for next year’s World Cup, were not good enough to qualify in an associate members event then how can they even think in terms of playing with the big boys in the World Cup? It’s like subcontinent teams asking to be included in the football World Cup.”
Gavaskar’s brutal observation states that one victory is not good enough for teams to think that they are ready to compete at the highest level. He wrote, “Get real guys, one win does not make you good enough to play in the cricket World Cup. If these teams are included then as we have seen in previous editions the quality of the game comes down and dilutes an event as big as the World Cup.”
Teams like Zimbabwe, Scotland, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong competed in ICC’s World Cup qualifier earlier this year. The final of the tournament was between Afghanistan and West Indies, who qualified for the 2019 event.
Scotland was hit hard due to the absence of DRS in the tournament as crucial decisions went against them which cost them the qualification.
