This story has nothing to do with cricketing folklore or World Cup records. This story is not about shining stars and mercurial talent – the stuff of sporting legend that fill sports pages all over the world. This is a story of hope and survival, of grit and passion, of a few people who dare to challenge the establishment – once in a few years when the cricketing elite condescend to allow them to play.
As the giants of the cricketing world, the Aussies and the Indians, savour their first victories in the World Cup, the minnows too have a lot to celebrate.
They are officially called the Associate Members of the ICC, and in the rarified world of international cricket, they are distinctly second-class citizens. In the normal course they can only play other Associate Members, and only the pick of the litter get to test their strength in an ICC World Cup event. From the first World Cup, they have always been a minor irritant creating an odd upset now and then.
Just elimination?
This time some people even say the World Cup is an amalgamation of two disparate stages. The qualification rounds comprise stage one, where the top eight are supposed to play with the others and take their respective places in the knock-out quarterfinals. And then comes the second stage, where the real World Cup will commence.
But hold on. I think the real World Cup has already started. The once mighty West Indies were literally outclassed by a strong Irish team, and the highly-rated Kiwis just squeaked past the post in a thrilling encounter against a never-say-die Team Scotland. A team like Zimbabwe who have been struggling to keep their cricketing ambitions afloat with constant player salary issues and lack of a proper talent development system not only beat Sri Lanka in a warm-up game but also acquitted themselves well against a solid South African unit. And although the UAE looks a bit light on experience, suddenly the established teams are starting to take note of these so-called lightweights.
Nothing is easy
Which means that suddenly there are no more easy games. You could call it the effect of shorter formats, smaller grounds (especially in New Zealand), you could even call it plain old luck. But the fact remains that these hard performances are not just a one-off.
The so-called minnows are coming up against strong and dominating opponents and giving back as good as they get or more. It was not the margin of the Irish victory which was significant but the finesse with which it was achieved. It was not the 7 wickets which Scotland took against New Zealand (and they dropped chances as well but never mind) which stunned me. It was their ability to make the pre-tournament favourites suddenly look helpless and worried which I thought made this such an important game.
Closing the gap
It is still early days, but this World Cup has already proved that the gap between the top eight and the next six is diminishing steadily. Barring a few players from Scotland and Ireland who ply their trade in English County Cricket, many of these teams are actually a long way off from even being fully professional. Flight pursers rub shoulders with students of English Literature and civil war veterans fight it out with amateur cooks. But as they take the cricketing stage, they are no longer easily undone.
And this is where I feel the ICC has a great opportunity to take the sport to the next level. While it is doing a standout job managing the growth and development of cricket in many such countries, by limiting the exposure of these not-so-minnows to only a few ICC events, they are missing out on a big thing.
If these teams can be brought into the existing cricket calendar and if the top eight test nations play a few ODIs or T20s with such Associate Members every year, you might actually see a rapid improvement in these sides. There have been teams which have been brought onto the highest level too early but given that we can restrict the entry to Test Cricket, participation in ODIs and T20s should not be an issue.
It will help reduce the pressure of re-inventing the ODI as it stands much maligned in the face of its more popular derivative – the T20. New teams would bring in new fans. New stars will emerge from unknown corners of the world. Indian fans will look at Ireland with new found respect as perhaps a few are already grudgingly doing. And perhaps then you might call it a true “World” Cup.
Rathindra Basu lives, breathes, sleeps sports and is forever waiting for the next Indian sporting triumph. Since this usually takes much time and infinite patience, he listens to music, reads voraciously and eats almost anything that moves!
As the giants of the cricketing world, the Aussies and the Indians, savour their first victories in the World Cup, the minnows too have a lot to celebrate.
They are officially called the Associate Members of the ICC, and in the rarified world of international cricket, they are distinctly second-class citizens. In the normal course they can only play other Associate Members, and only the pick of the litter get to test their strength in an ICC World Cup event. From the first World Cup, they have always been a minor irritant creating an odd upset now and then.
Just elimination?
This time some people even say the World Cup is an amalgamation of two disparate stages. The qualification rounds comprise stage one, where the top eight are supposed to play with the others and take their respective places in the knock-out quarterfinals. And then comes the second stage, where the real World Cup will commence.
But hold on. I think the real World Cup has already started. The once mighty West Indies were literally outclassed by a strong Irish team, and the highly-rated Kiwis just squeaked past the post in a thrilling encounter against a never-say-die Team Scotland. A team like Zimbabwe who have been struggling to keep their cricketing ambitions afloat with constant player salary issues and lack of a proper talent development system not only beat Sri Lanka in a warm-up game but also acquitted themselves well against a solid South African unit. And although the UAE looks a bit light on experience, suddenly the established teams are starting to take note of these so-called lightweights.
Nothing is easy
Which means that suddenly there are no more easy games. You could call it the effect of shorter formats, smaller grounds (especially in New Zealand), you could even call it plain old luck. But the fact remains that these hard performances are not just a one-off.
The so-called minnows are coming up against strong and dominating opponents and giving back as good as they get or more. It was not the margin of the Irish victory which was significant but the finesse with which it was achieved. It was not the 7 wickets which Scotland took against New Zealand (and they dropped chances as well but never mind) which stunned me. It was their ability to make the pre-tournament favourites suddenly look helpless and worried which I thought made this such an important game.
Closing the gap
It is still early days, but this World Cup has already proved that the gap between the top eight and the next six is diminishing steadily. Barring a few players from Scotland and Ireland who ply their trade in English County Cricket, many of these teams are actually a long way off from even being fully professional. Flight pursers rub shoulders with students of English Literature and civil war veterans fight it out with amateur cooks. But as they take the cricketing stage, they are no longer easily undone.
And this is where I feel the ICC has a great opportunity to take the sport to the next level. While it is doing a standout job managing the growth and development of cricket in many such countries, by limiting the exposure of these not-so-minnows to only a few ICC events, they are missing out on a big thing.
If these teams can be brought into the existing cricket calendar and if the top eight test nations play a few ODIs or T20s with such Associate Members every year, you might actually see a rapid improvement in these sides. There have been teams which have been brought onto the highest level too early but given that we can restrict the entry to Test Cricket, participation in ODIs and T20s should not be an issue.
It will help reduce the pressure of re-inventing the ODI as it stands much maligned in the face of its more popular derivative – the T20. New teams would bring in new fans. New stars will emerge from unknown corners of the world. Indian fans will look at Ireland with new found respect as perhaps a few are already grudgingly doing. And perhaps then you might call it a true “World” Cup.
Rathindra Basu lives, breathes, sleeps sports and is forever waiting for the next Indian sporting triumph. Since this usually takes much time and infinite patience, he listens to music, reads voraciously and eats almost anything that moves!
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