William Porterfield lashes out at ICC for cutting down the World Cup to 10 teams

Ireland skipper William Porterfield is not at all amused with the fact that the International Cricket Council has cut down the World Cup to just 10 teams. They lost to Afghanistan on Friday narrowly in what was a knockout encounter as far as the qualification for the marquee event next year is concerned. Afghanistan and Windies are the last two teams who will fly to England next year along with the top 8 teams. However, Porterfield felt bad for the teams for Scotland who lost due to one bad decision and were knocked out of the contention.

The ongoing ICC World Cup Qualifiers has seen some of the breathtaking matches so far with the teams like Nepal, Hong Kong and Scotland giving a good account of themselves. These teams deserved a go at the World Cup next year and this decision from ICC has come under a lot of scrutiny. The decision of cutting down the World Cup to just 10 teams is an obsession of ICC for the ‘big cheque’ according to the Irish skipper.

Porterfield angry on ICC

William Porterfield expressed his anger on the world cricketing body and felt that a lot of teams are leaving the competition with nothing in their pocket and a bleak future. “How is there only two teams going (from the qualifiers) to a competition that’s played every 208 weeks and you’ve got a six-week competition, to just play it so two or three big teams can play nine games on TV so the ICC can cash in with a big cheque, and a lot of teams are leaving here with nothing in their pocket,” he said during the post-match press conference.

He lashed out at ICC for being obsessed with the ‘big cheque’ and felt that the teams have nothing to play for if not the World Cup.

“The big cheque they’re getting from the World Cup has to be pushed back down through. All I hear is how good this competition has been, how everyone has beaten everyone, it’s gone round in a circle. It has to be put back into the game because if countries don’t have a World Cup to look forward to or the possibility of getting to the World Cup… if they actually give that carrot, dangle it in front of countries, surely cricket is going to get better in those countries and actually expand,” Porterfield added.

The Irish captain felt especially bad for Scotland who were denied a World Cup spot only due to a bad lbw decision from the umpire. “I’m not just saying that because we didn’t get there but I feel sorry for a lot of countries that are leaving here that don’t know what’s going to happen next week. To some extent we’re lucky. We’ve managed to get where we are. I feel sorry for Scotland, how it ended for them,” he continued.

“For them to progress, it’s going to be harder. We’ve got our pathway, as hard as it is, to keep drip feeding money out to keep improving facilities and things like that, from the ICC. And a lot of teams will leave here with nothing in their pocket. Scotland have come so close and yet so far themselves, but what have they got to look forward to for the next few years?” he concluded redirecting all the questions to ICC in anger.

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