Hey ICC, expand the World Cup with both Test & non-Test nations

Should the International Cricket Council (ICC) take a cue from football and tennis for its future world events.

That is, have 24 teams at T20 or 50-over World Cup like the Football World Cup (which used to have 24 teams and now has 32). And also have multiple contestants from one nationality at one world event like Grand Slams in tennis or Majors in golf.

Cricket is a team game like football (soccer) but unlike the latter which is popular across the world, it is largely restricted to a few nations like tennis and golf. Primarily because it demands ever-improving expensive equipment which is often unaffordable in countries that were colonised and are third world. With football, you only need a ball and a field to play.

There are only 12 Test nations and only half of these are doing fine financially and can stand on their own feet. The rest are in difficult situation and, like associate members and affiliates, depend on funding from ICC, which has done a remarkable job in disallowing the game to spread across the world.

At the moment 4-5 nations can field at least two white ball teams. Teams like India, England and Australia can probably manage to cobble up three of them while West Indies and Pakistan can arrange two teams.

England are currently playing Netherlands in the One-day International format and New Zealand in the Test format – with Ben Stokes, also a limited-overs cricket star, leading in the latter. And they are crushing their opponents on both fronts.

Last week, a senior official of the Indian cricket board (BCCI), which runs the cash-rich IPL, had said that having multiple India teams play bilateral series would be a regular feature in future. India, in fact, were the first to field two limited overs teams simultaneously — back in 1998, they had sent one team to Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and another to Canada for Sahara Cup.

Australia, West Indies and Pakistan also have a big pool of players thanks to their T20 leagues and also freelance players.

So why not have multiple teams from these nations and have the B and C teams of these strong cricketing nations fight in group stages of World Cup along with their A teams and associate nations and have a chance to qualify for the knockouts. It will also bring more associate/affiliate nations in fray.

International cricket is already getting diluted in the wake of ever-expanding T20 leagues and attracts lesser interest from fans – it is largely south Asian fans, and that too mostly Indians, who watch international cricket. In fact, a Zimbabwe vs New Zealand game will have more viewers who are Indian or of Indian-origin than those from the competing nations.

In the wake of international cricket’s dilution, the ICC may have to think of a tournament where many T20 stars of different domestic leagues can be fielded at a single world event and the south Asian population can get its fill. You never know, the ICC World Cup then may even trump the popularity of the leagues.

ICC can have just two such massive tournaments – one in 50-over format and the other in T20 format — after every four years.

Besides building the profile of ICC tournaments further by bringing in the best players at world stage, this expansion will also give ICC some much-needed self-confidence ;).

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