Continuing and concluding my last week’s article on how ICC
is failing in its mission to globalize the game of cricket, let’s look back at
this year’s cricket world cup thus far and you will be amazed how the
“associate cricket members” like Ireland has performed so far.
Ireland “handsomely” defeated West Indies in their group
game, New Zealand lost 7 wickets chasing Scotland’s minor total, Afghanistan nearly
triggered an upset at the cost of SriLanka. Now these Associate sides do not
face regular cricketing teams other than in World Cups, and yet, they are good
enough to compete with them. So imagine how competitive the game can become, if
they are allowed to play with these teams more regularly.
Why this doesn’t happen that way then? Reason is simple.
Unlike Football bodies like FIFA, International Cricket Council does not put
growth of the game as their agenda, at all. That’s it. Simple.
That’s not the priority, that never was. And they decided on
it long back, when they decided not to include cricket in Olympics (which will
give global exposure to the game, with much larger audience, taking game to new
countries and generation). The only agenda for the cricket body is to focus on
three main members of the council (India, England and Australia) and make them
richer, more richer than they already are.
World of Cricket cannot survive without these 3 – even
SriLanka, South Africa , New Zealand and others are dependent on these boards
to survive. These 3 countries are the custodians of the game, because they are
the ones who are financing the sport. Hosting a tri series between India,
Ireland and Afghanistan would not bring even a tiny percentage of what sponsors
can bring to the table for an IPL or a series between regular members.
A Cricket World Cup involving 14 nations this year is
already quite interesting and you can only imagine how it would be if only ICC
don’t tag teams like Ireland as “Associates”.
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