ICC play down fears of W'Cup damp squib

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has played down fears that next year's World Cup will be a let-down full of one-sided matches.

The current Champions Trophy tournament in Sri Lanka has highlighted the gulf between the top teams and less established nations with humiliating defeats for Holland and Kenya plus woeful displays by Test cricket's newest side Bangladesh doing little to broaden the game's appeal to world-wide television audiences.

Fellow minnows Namibia and Canada will join those three teams for cricket's showpiece event in southern Africa next February.

But ICC spokesman Brendan McClements denied the early stages could turn into a damp squib despite 26 of the 42 first-round matches pitting an established side against a so-called lesser team.

"Those countries except Bangladesh, which is a full member and Kenya, which has one-day status anyway, have earned the right to be there through playing in and doing well in the ICC Trophy and it's difficult to pre-judge things at this stage," McClements told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We've seen a couple of those types of matches go well here with Kenya batting well and being competitive against the West Indies.

"We've also seen in previous World Cups that the underdog can come and bite the more established side and that makes for entertaining cricket.

"They have their opportunity, they've worked hard to get there and it's important those teams are able to play against the best in the world as it brings them up to standard," he added.

McClements also said the ICC was addressing the issue of closing the obvious gap that exists between the major Test-playing countries and the sides below them.

"A lot of work has been done in that area over the past 12 months," he said.

"There is a large injection of money into the countries that have qualified from associate level to the World Cup with around $US1 million between them to go to coaching and development.

"Bob Woolmer has also been appointed to work with Canada, Namibia, Holland and Kenya and has already made progress and there is a tournament involving those countries in Namibia on the eve of the World Cup."

NEW STRUCTURE

McClements said the ICC's development manager Andrew Eade had been working on a new competitive structure for those countries below Test level.

"It's a world league with tournaments in each area and that will see the better teams playing each other more often and lead to an even greater focus on developing the game effectively in these areas."

McClements said the ICC would assess the success of the Champions Trophy after the tournament had finished but early indications were positive despite poor attendance at some matches.

"Some crowds have been below what we budgeted for but it is difficult with neutral games and live telecasts into the home market," he said.

"The sense is that it's gone really well and we have had a number of terrific matches so far in addition to any lop-sided ones.

"There's no doubt it has made more of an impact than the previous events we've had and it has been interesting to see it staged for the first time in a full-member country, Sri Lanka.

"The hold it's had over Sri Lanka and the people of Colombo, they've really embraced it, and by the time we get to Sunday night the hope is we'll be looking back and saying this is the best format for the competition we've had," he added.

The semi-finals of this year's competition take place on Wednesday, when South Africa play India, and Friday, with Sri Lanka facing Australia. The final is on Sunday.

Mail Cricket Editor