Minnows have a place but...

Associate members do have a place in the World Cup butu00a0ICC must put them through a more rigorous process of qualification to ensure the tournament is not reduced to a farceNetherlands ran England so close last night thanks to a tenonten performance by Ryan ten Doeschate the other major teams in the World Cup would have been chastened England won the game the Dutch won everybodys hearts and suddenly the criticism against minnow teams would seem misplaced Ryan ten Doeschate centre of the Netherlands is congratulated by teammates after he clean bowled Englands Ian Bell during their World Cup match in Nagpur yesterday picGetty ImagesOr would it Frankly Sundays games involving Kenya and Canada were terrible advertisement for the World Cupu00a0 New Zealand gave Kenya a tenwicket spanking chasing only 70 runs for a win while Sri Lanka handed out a 210 run thumping to Canada after scoring 332 and these margins adequately describe the two mismatchesOnesided matches are not infrequent in sport but if there is no prospect whatsoever of a competitive edge to a match it cheats the fans and the sport itself I dont think anybody had any doubt what the results of these two matches would be even before a ball was bowledEligibility standardBy the end of it I reckon everybody associated with the game and particularly the ICC would have been convinced that eligibility standards for participation must be made more stringent if the brand value of the World Cup is not to be diminishedThis is not to belittle the honest efforts made by the minnow teams Ever since the first World Cup in 1975 associate member teams have not only made the World Cup more exciting but the sport richer too For instance Sri Lankas spunky showing in 1975 and 1979 when they beat India hastened their entry as full members of the ICC Likewise Zimbabwe beating Australia in 1983 made the cricket world see them as potential full members In later years Bangladesh beat Pakistan in 1999 Kenya reached the semis in 2003 and Ireland beat Pakistan in 2007 in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup historyMy point is not that minnow teams have no place at all in the World Cup rather the process of their selection and how many in a tournament A balance needs to be struck to ensure that the laudable objective of encouraging the growth of the sport does not reduce its premier tournament into a farceThe fact that this World Cup is also being played over six long weeks can therefore only enhance the ennui ufffd if not the agony ufffd of watching weak teams getting walloped regularly This World Cup could easily have been packed into four weeks with fewer teams which would have enhanced the tournamentLearn from footballCricket could take a leaf from the book of World Cup football where a whopping 32 teams participate but only after a searching qualification process that does not spare even the most renowned teams While there is a continental qualification system in place to make the process less cumbersome there is no automatic entryu00a0Why even a leading side like Argentina barely made it to the 2010 World CupIn cricket however the major teams are automatic entrants Fair enough considering that so few teams exist But from the associate members it makes more sense to put them through a more rigorous process of qualification than what exists nowu00a0 A twotier system where the bottom two teams in a World Cup are relegated to the lower tier and vice versa seems so much fairerWith T20 now becoming a major constituent of the sport the gospel of cricket can be spread through it to newer shores The shorter the game the more level the playing field so mismatches will be fewer The quality of the World Cup therefore can be maintained by playing only the best teamsHints from Haroon Lorgat ICC CEO that the 2015 World Cup may have only 10 teams have been getting louderu00a0 But the ICC does not necessarily have to wait for the decibel level of public dismay to mount before making up its mind The problem is so evident that it is easily resolved