Upset by Associate nations once in a while: Lorgat

Ireland's stunning win over England in the on-going World Cup is just a one-off shocking result and the first few games of the tournament has vindicated the ICC's decision to have a 10-team format in the 2015 edition, said chief executive Haroon Lorgat.

Although the ICC is no mood to backtrack from its decision to reduce the number of participating teams in 2015 World Cup, Lorgat said it has decided to incorporate an ODI league and a clause regarding promotion and relegation into the mega-event.

"(In the 50-over format) the associates might pull a blinder once or twice but over a sustained period of time, over a length of a competition, it is unlikely they will compete as strongly as the main teams," Lorgat said.

"You are always going to get a diverse view in terms of what is opportunity and what is competition, because you can't have both. If you provide opportunity, you're going to get some teams who are less competitive, because you have grown the field," he said.

The ICC will meet in May to decide on a new structure of the World Cup from 2015 onwards.

The proposed ODI league will be held over a three-year cycle leading up to the World Cup in its fourth year, with the member nations playing each other at least once over that three-year period, either home or away.

Lorgat said the onus is on the ICC board to finalise its global ODI league format and arrive at a cut-off eligibility for the 10 teams for the 2015 World Cup.

"Somewhere we have to make the cut-off. Who knows what that would be yet - eight or nine or seven? The cut-off means that teams ranked higher than the cut-off directly get into the World Cup. Whoever is left out, goes into a qualifier," he told Cricinfo.

"That's where the associates get the opportunity. They (the associates) have obviously been disappointed (by 10 team World Cup) because the more teams you make, the more teams can play (in a World Cup), but that's not top competition," he said.

Lorgat believed the smaller teams would have a better chance to succeed in the 16-team World Twenty20 because it was a format that "lent itself to competition and there is a bit more spice in that."

With the first two weeks of the World Cup producing a tie between India and England, an upset by Ireland over England and a scare given to Pakistan by Canada, Lorgat said there was no threat to 50-over cricket.

"We've always said three formats are viable, but what I was concerned about were self-fulfilling prophecies. We need to be careful we don't create self-fulfilling prophecies."