“A World Cup is called a World Cup for a reason, because it’s a global event. By excluding nations that are trying to compete and trying to grow the game, it’s not very effective,” Preston Mommsen. PHOTO: CRICKET SCOTLAND
Scotland captain Preston Mommsen has criticised plans to reduce the number of teams at future World Cups, saying it would be a backward move for the global game.
The Scots are one of 14 teams taking part in the ongoing World Cup being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
But with the sides split into two groups of seven and four qualifying from each pool for the quarter-finals, critics argue that it takes too long to reach what is often a predictable list of teams for the last eight.
The International Cricket Council has indicated that only 10 nations will contest the 2019 World Cup in England, with the top eight teams in the global rankings joined by the two best sides from a qualifying event a year earlier. That would still give second-tier associate, non-Test, sides such as Scotland the chance to compete on the World Cup stage but Mommsen argued reducing the number of teams would hinder efforts to ‘grow the game’. “Hopefully people will realise that’s not the best decision for world cricket,” he said. “A World Cup is called a World Cup for a reason, because it’s a global event. By excluding nations that are trying to compete and trying to grow the game, it’s not very effective.”
However, Mommsen said he did not want the issue of qualification for future events to disrupt Scotland’s campaign at the 2015 World Cup, arguing that impressing on the field – starting with Tuesday’s match against co-hosts New Zealand – was the best way to win over their critics.
But he did observe that cricket appeared to be one of the few sports where the showpiece event was being reduced in size rather than witnessing an expansion in the number of teams taking part.
And with cricket already possessing an elite eight-team 50-over tournament in the Champions Trophy, Mommsen said a lack of differentiation between the two tournaments would not be in the best interests of cricket.
“You may as well call it the Champions Trophy number 2,” he said of proposals for a slimmed-down World Cup.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2015.
Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ