Associates Participation Debatable? by maaz

Are there too many associate countries participating in this competition i.e. Holland, Kenya, Canada & Ireland? Wouldn’t it be better to restrict the main tournament for the major sides? Discuss.

Surely we want to maintain that level of competitiveness, interest and flavour throughout the duration of the tournament rather than seeing frequent one sided affairs until the latter stages? From a national perspective the tournament structure is favourable and highly suitable when we come to assessing our chances of reaching the latter stages and potentially going the distance, however from a sporting perspective it is not necessarily what is best for promoting the game and bringing the best out of the actual overall winner and really stretching and questioning how good they actually are. The ICC will probably be closely considering the thought of going back to a 2007 like structure in the 2015 WC which takes place in Australia. This includes a preliminary round followed up by super eights which really makes you work to earn your place in the semis by playing with consistency against top class opponents to be there as opposed to just winning a few games here and there and delivering on the day. Putting the futuristic thoughts apart, for now let’s fully embrace what we have in place and make the most of it, but nonetheless, there is some serious food for thought which cannot be ignored.
{maaz}