MUMBAI: Former Indian captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar opined that Associate member nations such as Ireland and Scotland needed to win in the qualifying tournament if they really deserved to be playing at the ICC Cricket World Cup next year in England, according to his column in Mid-Day.
Gavaskar’s column comes in the wake of a strong debate over ICC denying the participation of Associate nations in the 2019 event, ensuring the presence of just 10 teams and playing it in the 1992 format. The debate sparked fire again after Scotland defeated the world’s top ranked ODI team and neighbours, England in a thrilling ODI recently in Edinburgh. However, Gavaskar believes that judging a team on just one major victory is premature in the context of a place in the World Cup.
“Meanwhile Scotland’s surprise win over England has again raised the cry about the number of teams for next year’s World Cup. These people have forgotten that there was a tournament among Associate members and the two of the bottom ranked Test playing countries to qualify for next year’s World Cup. Afghanistan and West Indies qualified by getting to the finals.”
“The point here is simple that if Ireland and Scotland, from where most of the noise comes about the number of teams for next year’s World Cup, were not good enough to qualify in an associate members event then how can they even think in terms of playing with the big boys in the World Cup? It’s like subcontinent teams asking to be included in the football World Cup.
“Get real guys, one win does not make you good enough to play in the cricket World Cup. If these teams are included then like we have seen in previous editions the quality of the game comes down and dilutes an event as big as the World Cup.”, Gavaskar had written in his column.
While the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in March 2018 saw West Indies and Afghanistan qualify, Scotland were slightly unfortunate in missing out on a place in the finals after ending up one point behind Rashid Khan and co. in the Super Sixes stage and two key moments went against them due to poor umpiring decisions in the absence of DRS.
