Haroon Lorgat again confirms only 10 teams for the next World Cup – ICC World Cup 2011
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Haroon Lorgat has said that the number of teams in the next World Cup will be reduced down to 10 in order to improve the quality of the game in the most prestigious tournament of the cricketing world. ICC Cricket World 2015 is scheduled to be held in Australia and New Zealand.
The ICC has been criticized by many former cricketers because of the large number of teams in the World Cup which has forced the governing body of the game to reduce the number of teams for the next edition of the tournament. The number of teams for this World Cup was also reduced to 14 as compared to the 16 teams in the previous tournament held in the Caribbean.
Lorgat said that ICC has already taken a decision to reduce the number of teams to 10 for the next World Cup but the qualification procedure for the tournament is yet to be decided. He said that, "the decision to go with 10 teams was very well thought through. We are discussing the merits and the process of qualification. It is a subject that is ongoing. We will consider that in ICC's next Executive Council meeting.”
The CEO said that ICC is trying to create a balance between keeping the quality of the game high and to help the associate members develop their cricket. He also stated that ICC has decided to use the T20 World Cup to give exposure to the smaller teams as the number of teams in the T20 World Cup has been increased to 16. "The Twenty20 format is used only for development of the game. Hence we have expanded that competition (World Cup) to 16 teams. We think if the qualification was to be the route through to the World Cup, then that will make a far better World Cup from a competitive point of view,” Lorgat added.
Pakistan’s former captain and the current coach of Afghanistan team, Rashid Latif, has supported ICC’s decision to cut down the number of teams. He feels that lesser teams would mean higher quality in the tournament.
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