World Cup 2015 Highlights of the Group stage matches

14. ICC’s decision to limit the no.of teams in 2019 World Cup to 10

ICC’s decision to limit the next World cup in 2019 to be held in England, to 10 teams didn’t get any applause from the associate nations since they felt abandoned by cricket’s governing body.

Teams like Ireland and Netherlands who have been who have defeated full member teams like West Indies, England, Bangladesh, Pakistan in previous editions of World Cup feel betrayed at the decision since it basically removes them from the competition. ICC say that the top 8 teams will qualify directly and the teams from number 8 to 12 in official ICC rankings will compete in qualification matches for the remaining 2 spots. According to ICC, a 10 team World Cup will ensure better quality of matches and a format ala 1992 World Cup with every team playing every other once will give better entertainment to viewers and garner better interest from the teams, removing meaningless matches between minnow teams.

Emerging cricketing nations like Ireland feel that instead of giving incentives to associate nations for their performance and increasing their participations amongst full member tournaments, removing them from equation will set back any progress that an associate team makes. It will be interesting to see whether ICC revert to the 14 team format or stick with their 10 team format.