Can cricket take a leaf out of rugby's book?
Argentina's impressive performance in the recently concluded Rugby World Cup made one thing obvious - the more teams play better opposition, the more they improve
ESPNcricinfo staff
02-Nov-2015
Hugo Jennings, writing for Last Word on Sports, believes cricket is giving far too much protection to the "bigger" nations, preventing Associates from growing both financially and competitively. He uses the example of the Argentina rugby team - a side that used to get regularly thrashed before they got the opportunity to test themselves against stronger countries - to make his point that Associates just need the right platform to thrive.
Whilst many of the "associate" nations are improving, they are not being given enough of an opportunity to do so, and it looks like they will soon hit a ceiling if things are not changed. Ireland have a great chance of becoming a Test nation in 2019. However, a crucial change in the original ICC reforms, made to gain the votes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, means that the "bigger" (not better) nations will be given too much protection and the "smaller" nations will not be given enough help both financially and competitively.
The new two-tier system which allows associate nations to compete with full members is a fantastic move in the globalisation of cricket, but the fact that teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, both of whom are showing no signs of improving and are starting to fall behind nations like Ireland and Afghanistan, cannot be relegated means that not only will they be given an unfair amount of help financially, but that they will not need to sort out their respective teams to keep their place at cricket's top table.