The ICC has confirmed the groups for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Canada and Kenya will play in Group A where they will face Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, while Ireland and Netherlands are drawn alongside India, South Africa, England, West Indies and Bangladesh in what on current rankings has to be the easier group.

Three ODI venues are among the nine set to host the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa, according to the schedule released for the 12-team tournament from April 1 to 19. Willowmoore Park in Benoni and Senwes Park in Potchefstroom will be used for first-round and Super Eight matches, while the final will be held at Centurion's SuperSport Park.

Continue reading "ICC announces schedule for World Cup Qualifiers"

It may be three long years years away, but the road to the 2011 World Cup begins this week in the unlikely setting of Jersey. More famed for its cattle and potatoes than a venue for cricket tournaments, Jersey plays host to 12 of the world's lesser-known teams in Division 5 of the World Cricket League (WCL), as they battle to climb the ladder to the fourth division and dream of a World Cup place in Asia.

Will Luke previews Division 5 of the World Cricket League which gets underway this week.

As widely expected, the ICC executive board approved proposals to reduce the number of Associates participating at the 2011 World Cup from six to four.

This was done, so the ICC claimed, to reduce the length of an event which many considered to be too bloated in 2007 from 47 days to 38.

The ICC's 10 Full Members automatically qualify and they will be joined by the top four teams from next years World Cup Qualifiers in Dubai. As thing stands, this means that Ireland have to qualify for a tournament they reached the Super Sixes at last time, while Zimbabwe, who are below them in the official ICC One-Day Rankings, do not.

Alternative proposals, including one which would have involved a pre-qualifying tournament featuring the top six Associates as well as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, were earlier rejected by the ICC's chief executives committee.

Cricinfo has learned that attempts to broker a compromise over plans to reduce the number of Associate countries at the 2011 World Cup by introducing an eight-team pre-qualifier were scuppered by the host countries, led by India.

Continue reading "Associates' World Cup plans scuppered"

Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of the Irish Cricket Union, has warned that a failure to qualify for the next World Cup will have a seriously detrimental affect on leading Associates.

"Non-qualification for two out of the existing six ODI countries will have a materially detrimental effect on the profile of the sport in that country, therefore ability to attract finance, therefore ability to attract (and pay for) top teams to visit, therefore ability to tour abroad to play competitive cricket,, therefore ability to move forward on and off the pitch."

Click here for the full interview.

As revealed by Cricinfo last month, the 2011 World Cup will be shortened and the main victims of the change will be the Associate countries who will have their numbers cut from six to four.

"It is a move we both feared and expected and it's not great news for the Associates," Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of the Irish Cricket Union, told Cricinfo. "Neither is it a great vote of confidence in the ICC's own High Performance Programme.

Click here to tell us what you think of this? Is it the start of the gradual elimination of smaller countries from the World Cup or a necessary and welcome move?

The Associates are up in arms over proposals to reduce their number from six to four at the 2011 World Cup.

The move comes as organisers try to make the tournament less prone to early upsets - the early eliminations of India and Pakistan in 2007 were financially crippling - as well as giving the bigger teams more matches in the early stages.

Continue reading "Associates fume at World Cup pruning"

In today's Sunday Telegraph Mike Atherton, the former England captain, attacks the inclusion of the Associate nations in the 2007 World Cup. "I think it's ridiculous, the number of Associate Member countries that have been involved. The World Cup should be about showcasing the very best," he said.

His comments are made in a revealing teleconference with Scyld Berry, Ian Chappell, Kumar Sangakkara and Andrew Strauss.

"To go back to the original point, if you look at the Canadian team, they were all ex-Caribbean or ex-Asian players," Atherton said. "This World Cup hasn't done much for cricket in Canada."

Sangakkara was equally disenchanted with the "minnows" represenation. "The game can spread," he said, "but that doesn't mean you have to let other teams into the World Cup and dilute the quality."

So, over to you. Though Ireland undoubtedly did well to get as far as they did, did their and Bangladesh's involvement dilute the overall standards of the tournament? The players from the Associates themselves maintain that the only way they can improve is by playing Full Member nations. Logically speaking, a balance needs to be struck - but how?

Martin Williamson, Cricinfo's managing editor, looks at the performances of the Associates in the World Cup so far.

So the first stage of the World Cup is over, although the wholesale elimination of the so-called minnows, which the format was designed to ensure, has not happened. If you include Bangladesh with the Associates in the minnow category, they have bloodied two of the most important noses in the world game.

The appearance of Bangladesh in the second round is a real a success for the expansion of the game and a most welcome reward for their cricket-mad public. That it came at the expense of neighbours India was a bonus for them, even if it devastated the hoards of commercial men that increasingly dictate the running of the game. The other surprise package, Ireland, secured their own place by beating a shambolic Pakistan side; in fairness, their tie with Zimbabwe, while a great result for them and the tournament, was not a seismic shock, so far have the Zimbabweans fallen in recent years.

Read the article in full, then leave your comments below.

The USA’s ABC News reports how China has used the World Cup to score diplomatic points over rivals Taiwan. The Chinese involvement in building various stadia in the Caribbean has been well documented, but it appears the knock-on effect has been more wide reaching:

China gave Antigua a $55 million grant to build the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium. It gave $30 million to Jamaica for a new Trelawny stadium. St. Lucia has both a cricket and a football stadium courtesy of Beijing. The 70,000 people of Dominica have received the aid equivalent of $1,600 per person in the form of a cricket grounds, new drains for the capital and better roads.

The immediate reason for this largesse is Beijing's determination to diplomatically isolate Taiwan. Says Harry Sung of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C.: "Their top priority is to isolate Taiwan. Most of the remaining countries that recognize Taiwan are located in the Caribbean and Latin America."

China's cricket diplomacy led to two West Indian countries, Grenada and Dominica, derecognizing Taiwan as an independent country. Of the remaining 24 countries that recognize Taiwan, four are in the Caribbean and two of these play cricket.

	Going easy on the minnows? © Getty Images

Robert Craddock, writing in The Australian, thinks he knows why.

It is understood commentators have been told by Global Cricket Corp producers that it frowns on them denigrating the minnows. However, it is deemed acceptable for commentators to call an event a mismatch but not to say some of the nations do not deserve to be in the tournament.

Some commentators who agree with the directive and feel the minnows are a necessary part of global expansion are happy to abide by it. Others, who feel the tournament has been devalued by their presence, would rather speak their mind.

And Craddock concluded by saying that some of the players themselves are aware of the real picture.

The widespread feeling that the minnows are enjoying every moment of their matches against the big boys is wide of the mark. Several Dutch players privately conceded they feel embarrassed by their team's efforts.

Keep your eyes and ears open and see if what you are watching tallies with what you are being told.

(Leave your thoughts in the comments below)

Following his side's 21-run defeat to the West Indies yesterday, Steve Tikolo, the Kenya captain, has criticised the lack of exposure and matches Associate cricket is afforded.

"The ICC is looking to spread the game globally," he said, "[but] I don't see how they are going to do it unless they get us involved in cricket activities. To be playing at this level, you have to be playing against these guys regularly. Playing them in World Cup warm-up matches and big tournaments alone is not good enough.

"We need quality opposition to improve and we are not getting that."

Tikolo led Kenya to winning the World Cricket League (WCL) in Nairobi last month, a tournament which pitted the top six Associates against each other. While the standard of cricket was generally good, the overwhelming response from the players was that they can only improve if they play full-member nations more regularly. Nevertheless, and despite the 21-run defeat yesterday, Tikolo was pleased with Kenya's performance.

"It was a fruitful exercise, since the main aim was to try and get some good combinations going in the team, and I think we did this," he said. "Obviously, we have another friendly game on Thursday, and we will try and give the guys who did not have a go a chance then to try and finalise our first 11.

"We bowled well at the start of their innings, but we let them get too many runs in the latter stages. I thought also that we batted well, but lost some batsmen in the middle, otherwise it would have been a different result."

Kenya face the Netherlands in their second warm-up match on Thursday at the Trelawny Stadium in Jamaica.

Chloe Saltau speaks to Tom Tikolo, the Kenya captain, in today's Age in Australia.

As always, though, much will depend on Tikolo as the general at the top of the order, and with his artful off-breaks, if the team is to replicate the dreamy success of 2003, when Kenya lost to Australia in a Super Six game best remembered for Brett Lee's hat-trick. He is desperate to prove Kenya's performance in that tournament was not an aberration.

"Save for what happened after that, cricket going down in Kenya, that was the most memorable time of my career. To compete the way we did, make it to the finals, to be the team captain, these will be my memories for a long, long time to come," said Tikolo.

"We are capable of that. What we are planning is to go to the World Cup and be competitive. We don't just want to make up numbers."

Bermuda will be subject to arguably the most fiercely enforced Code of Conduct ever imposed on a national team over the next month, as reported by today's Royal Gazette:

A curfew of 11 p.m. the night before a game and midnight for all other days is set to be strictly enforced.

Any player who breaks the curfew will automatically be banned for two One-Day Internationals and receive a hefty fine of $1,000.

Any player who breaks the curfew for a second time will be sent home immediately.

Any player not found in the hotel room to which they have been assigned by the team manager will be fined $1,000.

Any player who misses a training session without the coach’s express permission will be fined $200, while a second missed session will result in a $500 fine and a one-match ban.

Late attendance at any training session will be punished by a $50 fine for each offence

On previous tours, the players were subjected to a Code of Conduct, but it is understood that any disciplinary issues were usually only dealt with after the team had returned to the Island.

On-the-spot fines of up to $1,000 are certainly unprecedented, but Board president Reggie Pearman insisted yesterday that they had both a duty and a right to insist on the highest standards of behaviour.

Martin Williamson reviews the Kenya-Bermuda one-day series and looks at what the games mean for both sides

Although the three-match one-day series between Kenya and Bermuda hardly registered on world cricket's Richter scale, in the battle for supremacy among the game's second string it had greater significance. And with the World Cup less than four months away, it provided a much-needed fillip to the Kenyans but left Bermuda with many more questions than answers.

The 3-0 scoreline does not flatter Kenya who outbatted and outbowled Bermuda, and who certainly looked the far more professional and fitter side in the field

Continue reading "Associates heading in opposite directions"

Bermuda is on stand-by as a possible World Cup host nation if any one of the seven venues which have been allocated matches fail to sign onto the Sunset Legislation by November 1.

Chris Dehring, chief executive officer and managing director of the tournament, said countries that failed to approve the legislation - which also covers the sale and distribution of tickets and the broadcast of tournament play - would risk losing their matches to stand-by islands such as Bermuda.

The ICC announced a dramatic increase in the programme of one-day internationals for the six Associate Member countries that will participate in the 2007 World Cup.

The six sides - Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland - are expected to play at least 64 ODI matches before the World Cup begins in March 2007, including scheduled matches against Full Member countries.

We're a year away from the 2007 World Cup, and yet thoughts are already turning to the 2011 event, as Tony Munro finds out in this week's Beyond the Test World column.