International Cricket Council defends 2015 World Cup format
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719, International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive, defends the decision of cricket's ruling body regarding the 2015 World Cup. The ICC has reduced the number of teams playing in the next World Cup to ten compared to the 14 in the current
tournament.
The International Cricket Council asserts that only Test playing nations will be featured in the tournament. Simultaneously, the ICC has increased the number of teams that will be the part of Twenty20 format from 12 nations to 16. Lorgat believes that weaker
teams are better suited to the shorter format as it requires less skill than what the 50-over format requires.
The chief executive said, “We felt in the past few years that Twenty20 is the format best disposed to develop the game and provides a better environment for competition. Twenty20 is the format needed to develop the game and we plan to increase that (World
Championship) to 16 teams.”
The ICC decided on the team reduction for next mega event back in 2010 and has received criticism from many non-Test playing nations. The 2015 World Cup will be jointly hosted by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 and with this decision by the cricket’s governing
body, teams like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753 will not be participating in the event.
Lorgat’s decision has aggravated division three teams, who already feel that the board is pressuring them while on the other hand favoring the Test playing teams. Chief Executive of Kenya, Tom Sears, believes that cricket’s governing body will be hindering
the expansion of the game if the minnows are ignored for cricket’s mega event.
Sears expressed his concerns over this decision and concludes, “If we have to improve on the standards, there is no point of denying us the opportunity of competing at the top level. We are disturbed about the whole issue.”
The Cricket http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 and Bangladesh.
The 2011 World Cup will begin on 19 February with a match between co-hosts http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820.
Lorgat thinks that the 2007 edition of the World Cup was a bit longer than what it should have been. The previous tournament consisted of 16 teams. That tournament saw some of the big teams not making it into knockout phase of that event. The ICC used a
different format in that event than they are using now.
However, this time around ICC wants big teams to advance forward as it will help in promotion of the game. International Cricket Council considers World Cup as their signature tournament despite the increased popularity of Twenty20 cricket. Lorgat also said
that he wants all three formats to survive and get along simultaneously.
The ICC chief executive also made public the decision of allowing host teams to play the quarter-finals at their home ground if they qualify for the knockout stage in the current World Cup. Of the four quarter-finals, two are scheduled to be played in Dhaka,
while Ahmedabad and Colombo will host one each. However, in an unlikely case if two hosts are to play against each other the team ranked higher will be the host.
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