Associate Nations Fear Life in Shadows Unless ICC Ruling Elite Changes

At Heathrow a few weeks ago, David Richardson, the chief executive of the ICC, bumped into a director of cricket of a leading associate nation. The director was en route to a meeting that would be discussing how to improve the performance of associates. "Not much point with the World Cup reduced to 10 teams," he said. Richardson laughed.(All the Latest Cricket Updates)

This is the backdrop to the World Twenty20 qualifying event currently being played in Ireland and Scotland, which will determine the six associates who progress to the World T20 in India next year - the only realistic chance for most associates to reach a world event in the rest of the decade. Add in the $250,000 available to the six qualifiers - the difference between many getting a contract and remaining amateur - and teams are imbued with a palpable desperation to progress.

Perhaps that helps to explain the wildly fluctuating nature of this tournament. In the group stages, Jersey defeated Hong Kong and Nepal; Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea beat Ireland; and Oman toppled Afghanistan and the Netherlands. Even the United States, with a board suspended by the ICC, managed to win three consecutive games. And in the knockout stages Hong Kong chased down 162 off the final ball against Afghanistan.

In an age when professionalisation and globalisation have lent many sporting teams an identikit feel, there is a refreshing distinctiveness about the sides in the qualifiers, from the well drilled Ireland and Scotland units to the beguilingly erratic Hong Kong and the intoxicating energy of Papua New Guinea in the field. Afghanistan remain as enthralling as ever.

Despite occasional intrusions from the weather, it has made for a tournament to be celebrated and enjoyed in its own right, not merely as an addendum to cricket between Test nations. A full 20 matches are being broadcast, a record for an all-associate tournament.

So this three-week tournament should feel like a landmark in the development of cricket in the 95 associate and affiliate members of the ICC. Yet to those involved it has instead taken on a different role: as an extended lament to the talent they believe the ICC has such apparent disregard for.

After the unprecedented interest in their fate during the World Cup, the associates arrived at the ICC annual conference last month expecting the issue of the 10-team World Cup would be debated. It was not. The issue was not even formally raised by the board, and was conspicuously ignored in the ICC's press release. Cricket Ireland's chief executive, Warren Deutrom, hopes the debate "isn't dead yet". Richardson says: "There will be an opportunity to discuss it at the next round of meetings but I don't want to get anyone's hopes unduly raised. The bottom line is we have sold the rights based on 10 teams". He adds that guaranteeing India nine games is "one of the factors, yes. The increase in the revenue is significant and everyone gets the benefit of that."

Tim Anderson, the ICC's head of global development and an ally of the associate cause in the corridors of Dubai, argues that "given the environment we operate in and given all the good things that are also happening, I do think we're better off". The ICC will spend $7.4m on this World T20 qualifying tournament, compared with $250,000 in 2010, when it had 17 games rather than 51 (though the 2012 and 2013 qualifying tournaments were 72 games).

Anderson also cites the introduction of Afghanistan and Ireland to a 12-team ODI structure from this year as progress. There are now tentative signs of Ireland getting more ODIs, with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe touring next summer; an ODI fund is being mooted to help pay for the games. The Test Challenge in 2018 will allow the winner of the Intercontinental Cup to gain Test status if they defeat the lowest-ranked full member, though any new Test team would still receive around one-eighth the ICC funding of Zimbabwe and no guaranteed fixtures.

It is instructive to compare opportunities for associates now with five years ago. The number of guaranteed spots for associates in the World Cup has gone from four to none. Largely to create more time for the self-proclaimed "Big Three" to play each other, the World T20 has moved from a two-year cycle to a four-year cycle, depriving qualifiers of a $250,000 participation fee; the number of games associates are guaranteed against top-eight ranked sides every four years in the World T20 has gone from eight to none.

The restructuring of the ICC last year led to associate funding over the eight-year TV rights cycle beginning this year being $365m less than had the rights been sold for the same amount under the old distribution model. In effect the money now goes to Australia, England and India - the three countries who least need it - instead, who together receive half of all ICC revenue. While the total value of the ICC's broadcasting deal has risen from $1.1bn to nearly $2.5bn, associates get only $55m more; even that gain is virtually eroded by inflation. The Scotland captain, Preston Mommsen, expresses the sentiments of many when he says: "There are far fewer opportunities for associates. It is going to continue to dwindle."

In what appears an act of self-protection for the weaker full members, the qualifiers for the next two World Cups have been awarded to Bangladesh and then Zimbabwe. After Bangladesh's emergence as a powerful ODI side this year, Zimbabwe could now host the next qualifier instead. "If it turned out that Bangladesh qualified automatically for the World Cup would that lead to that decision being reconsidered? Possibly," Anderson says.

Little wonder that Ireland's John Mooney wanted to wear a black armband to commemorate the death of associate cricket. When news of his idea broke, the ICC promptly warned all teams that wearing one would be deemed a political statement and players would be charged with violating the code of conduct. Asked about the black armbands, Richardson, citing the ICC's spending on associate cricket, says: "I don't think that correctly reflects the situation."

Anderson believes the ICC's investment has moulded associates that are not only better teams on the field but also better managed off it - and the increase in the quality of cricket has led to associates getting more attention. "In the past associate cricket almost sat on the side of the mainstream. We did our thing and lots of people didn't take any notice."

Yet the fear remains that unless the attitude of cricket's ruling elite changes, associate cricket will primarily exist in the shadows. In the opinion of one associate representative, the apparent resistance of ICC and the ECB to expansionism is "because they don't want someone to challenge their power". Giles Clarke, the chairman of the ECB, is adamant that the World Cup in England will comprise only 10 teams, and staunchly opposes the notion that a pre-qualifying tournament for the final two spots in the main event should be held in England just before the tournament.

In the clubhouse at Clontarf, one of the host grounds for the World T20 qualifiers, proudly sits a photo of the World Cup match played there in 1999. For some the picture has taken on a rather elegiac quality, a reminder of a time when cricket was committed to growing beyond its traditional confines: the World Cup was expanded to 16 teams and games taken to the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland and Kenya. Now cricket is unique among world sports in wilfully contracting its flagship event. Perhaps Richardson should not be laughing.