Before I go ahead, let me clarify what does the Associate Member mean? In 1990's, ICC decided to promote the Cricket amongst the countries where cricket is not very popular. In that campaign, few Countries associated with International Cricket Council, but not entitled to play Test Cricket are called Associates Members.
In 1975, when the 1st World Cup was played, total 8 teams participated including 2 Associate teams East Africa and Sri Lanka. In 2003 World Cup, this number increases to 4 and in next world cup, this number becomes 6. Few countries who got chance to play as Associate members improved a lot and finally got the entitled to play Test Cricket too i.e Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc. So far, in this world cup 2011, Ireland has really surprised the world by defeating England in the league matches but rest of the Associate members really disappointed a lot...!
Cricket Specialist, Cricketers from all over the World have mixed reaction on this hot topic. Few people says that Associate members should be allowed to play world cup matches in future too as it will help them to improve their efficiency. But in my Opinion, These Associate teams should not be allowed to play International One day Cricket matches because in 50 over match it becomes very difficult for the weaker team to move forward and give a respectable total for the opposite team. In this format, these team may surprise in 1-2 matches, but it's impossible for them to play consistent good cricket against well established teams in complete one day series. We all know that now cricket is money game so by including these teams in Big events i.e world cup have great impact on market possibilities too. In fact, if you go to see a match where one team is an associate member, you will find a comparatively lower number of spectators witnessing the match in Stadium.
In this regard, According to my views, ICC should follow the standard in Football game made by FIFA. There should be qualifying match amongst the Associate teams before they should be allowed to play World Cup. Apart from that they should be given privilege to play 20-20 cricket so that these teams can get chance to prove themselves. 'Twenty-Twenty' cricket is the best format to promote the Cricket in all over the world as this format is very much exciting and take less time. ICC should try that this format of cricket should be included in the Olympic game in future.
What's ur Views on this topic? Do write ur comments below this post.
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