Think back to the World Cup. What were the most memorable moments? The India v England tie? Tendulkar being lifted on a lap of honour after the final? The atmosphere at the India v Pakistan semi? All are possible. But for me one of the outstanding memories of that great tournament was Kevin O'Brien's record-breaking century and Ireland's victory over England. Of course, the competition thrives on well-supported and generously-sponsored games involving the major cricketing powers but I have always argued that World Cups are made as much by the poor plucky losers as well as the wealthy stars. Even though Ireland, Canada, Kenya and the Netherlands never really looked likely to reach the knockout stages, they did put the wind up some of the Test-playing nations and occasionally actually beat them.
I was appalled when the ICC originally decreed that only the current top ten of Test cricket - not ODIs, mind you - should be allowed to take part in the sport's biggest one-day international event in four years' time, thus robbing us of such giant-killing thrills. The co-hosts had got their way, but the Associates and their supporters put up such a fight, with legal threats tossed into the mix, that ICC president Sharad Pawar found a way to appease them and raise hopes of reversing that scandalous decision at the forthcoming ICC's annual conference in Hong Kong.
I'm not advocating a repeat of the 'all play six' format that involved a number of less-than-appetising encounters and extremely one-sided fixtures. However, a 12-nation tournament can't be too difficult a compromise to reach. Even if the Aussies and others on the ICC insist on sticking to the ten-team maximum, surely the Associates should at least have the opportunity to qualify by playing off against the likes of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, West Indies and whoever else is likely to be in the bottom four of the top tier. It at least gives the youngsters with national pride something to aspire to, rather than seek their living as England, South Africa or Sri Lanka fringe players. The ICC can never claim to be willing to expand cricket around the world if it doesn't give those other countries exposure of top-class competition rather than face a future of endless games against Papua New Guinea, Cyprus and the like. In four years, Afghanistan could well be pushing hard, too.
Cricketing growth should not be allowed to rely on the grubby hands of short-term commercialism that is IPL, which is only one private brand of short-form cricket, albeit very entertaining and lucrative and which attracts most of the world's best exponents.
When Cricket Australia demand that only the ten best teams in the world should participate in 'their' tournament, that's fine. Just don't tell us who they should be four years in advance of the event. Let the teams compete for the honour. If Zimbabwe, Bangladesh et al succeed in qualifying, so be it. But I sincerely hope the ICC's meeting in June shows common sense and keeps the World Cup as a truly open and global tournament and not just a private event for the privileged few.
