Ireland cricket team captain William Porterfield has called on the International Cricket Council (ICC) to develop the game instead of cutting the number of teams at the World Cup. Ireland narrowly missed out on booking a quarterfinals berth, but they might not feature in 2019 when the tournament is reduced from 14 to 10 teams.
Porterfield questioned that why don’t 10 teams just play cricket and every other country in the world not bother, before he sarcastically added that it’s the ICC, which is ‘supposedly global’, the BBC reported. The skipper insisted that they have to develop the game.
Batsman Porterfield was speaking after Ireland’s seven-wicket defeat by Pakistan, which meant they missed out on a spot in the last eight on net run rate after winning half of their six Pool B games.
Ireland have beaten a Test nation in three successive World Cups, with their victories in Australia and New Zealand including wins over West Indies and Zimbabwe.
The left-handed batsman claimed that they have shown what they can do, adding that the ICC can’t say that they are having fewer teams to make the World Cup shorter, because he insisted that the next tournament is longer than this one.
Eight places in the next tournament would be allocated according to the world rankings, with Ireland likely to compete for the two remaining spots in a qualifying competition in Bangladesh, but if they fail to qualify, it would be the first World Cup without the Irish since 2007.
Porterfield said that he would love to think that they haven’t played their last World Cup game, adding that he is sure that the ICC are hoping everything blows over and they don’t hear much from Ireland, as then it’s easy to sweep under the carpet.
