A short, sharp World Cup?

It had appeared the ICC had regained some sense. The gruelling 2007 World Cup was a veritable cricketing treadmill. Many of the matches were as filled with meaning as the grandstands were filled with people. And boy, were those seats empty. Two brilliantly organised World T20s, an excellent re-birth of the ICC Champions Trophy and we were all filled with optimism, that indeed the next World Cup could be just as succinctly run, with every match being consequential.

And then, upon seeing the new schedule, I sigh. Sorry, does that say 14 teams in two groups of seven? There will be 42 matches required just to eliminate the minnows? And what does this one month long preamble lead to? The meat of the competition, the games that really matter. Alas, it is a pure knockout stage. I guess it is too late to change for the 2011 World Cup.

But in 2015, why don't we have a set of World Cup qualifiers, which gives the non-Test teams a chance. Just like in football. And then allow the eight teams that qualify to play each other in a round-robin tournament, with the first four going through to the semis. That would be 31 matches all up (11 less than 2011) and every single one of them would be important.