Blame it on the packed calendar and the continued rise of franchise T20 leagues, squeezing out the time/opportunities for 50 over contests.
Not hard to guess who suffers and who benefits.
In reply to Tryangle
Super League or no Super League.....team has to perform through out to qualify....with the inclusion of Ireland, Scotland.... West Indies have their work cut out...
If I understand things correctly, then West Indies are well on the outside looking in for the next Champions Trophy tournament as well.
Other food for thought
People here need to recognize that WI is closer to the 'begging for fixtures' part of the spectrum than they think.
I like that the World Cup will be extending the number of sides competing, although 10 automatic qualifying nations is too many.
In reply to WICFan
Agreed. But Full Members don't want to take too many risks of missing out if they lost in qualifying rounds. They saw what happened to Zimbabwe on home soil a few years back.
Will be interested to know how the next set of qualifiers will look like, if it'll mirror the T20 process or split out into regions.
In reply to Tryangle
I know full members won't want to risk what happened in 03 and 07, but if the sport is to expand then the ICC could have easily made automatic qualification for say the top 7 or 8 sides with the rest having to do a preliminary qualifier.
We need more ODI and T/20 cricket for the likes of Ireland, USA, Scotland etc.
Do Namibia automatically qualify as a host nation?
In reply to WICFan
Not sure; expansion of teams makes this uncertain at the moment.
I remember some years back, Netherlands hosted some WC matches but they had to qualify for the tournament like all the Associates had to. I dont think they played in that tourney actually