ICC to re-think 2015 World Cup decision

Sense may finally prevail with the International Cricket Council (ICC) which took its worst cricketing decision in recent years by barring all associate countries from taking part in the 2015 World Cup. The ICC Executive Board has been asked to review their decision on the 2015 World Cup which may have kept out some of the rising teams in world cricket. Sharad Pawar, ICC president, has said that the composition of the teams for the World Cup needs to be discussed again. They will now reconsider the composition during the ICC Annual Conference in Hong Kong at the end of June 2011. Through a strange decision without giving preference to outstanding performance from the associate nations in the recent World Cup, ICC's Executive Board meeting in Mumbai on April 4 had decided that only the 10 Test playing nations should participate in the 2015 edition despite Ireland's triumph over England and falling standards of teams like West Indies and Zimbabwe. These decisions were part of a strategic restructure of ICC events and the context and content for international cricket. As part of the restructure, a Test play-off for the top four teams was introduced and the ICC World Twenty20 was expanded to 16 teams. However, the Board had also agreed in Mumbai that the 10 teams for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England would be determined on the basis of qualification. Pawar, after receiving representations from the Associate and Affiliate Members of the ICC on its decision over eligibility to play in the 2015 World Cup, said: "I have given this matter further serious thought and will request the Board to consider this topic once more. I can understand the views of the Associates and Affiliates and ICC will seek to deal with this issue in the best way possible." The recently concluded World Cup was hailed a huge success despite featuring 14 teams. The league stage was played dividing the teams into two groups of seven teams each with the top eight playing in the super eight stages, leading the to quarterfinals, semifinals and final.