29 June,2011 08:36 AM IST | | AFP
World cricket's governing body announced on yesterday that four non-Test playing nations would compete in the next World Cup, in a U-turn of a controversial decision that had excluded the game's minnows.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement its executive board had approved a 14-team contest in Australia and New Zealand in 2015, with 10 places going to the Test-playing nations.
The second-tier teams will have to pre-qualify for the remaining four places.
The ICC also announced the 2019 World Cup would be a scaled-down 10-team event, with the top eight places going to the top-ranked teams and two berths being awarded in a pre-qualifying tournament.
The 2012 and 2014 Twenty20 Cup will remain a 12-team tournament with two coming through a weeding out process.
The about-face on the 2015 World Cup reverses the ICC's decision to limit the tournament to the sport's 10 full-member teams ufffd which left countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Kenya on the sidelines.
"The ICC executive board opted to retain the 14-team format that was used at the highly successful and universally acclaimed ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka with the 10 full members being joined by four associate or affiliate qualifiers," the ICC said on its website. 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 were previously believed to have been in favour of retaining a 10-team limit even if smaller countries were allowed into the World Cup. Ireland, who outshone many Test-playing nations at this year's tournament, had been at the forefront of the campaign against ousting the minnows.
"I suppose the immediate reaction is one of relief, and that we can all now divert our energies in the significantly more proactive pursuit of trying to qualify," said Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom.
