As the cricketing minnows struggle to make an impression in the early part of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the debate over their exclusion from the 2015 edition is heating up with captains taking sides and letting their own theories on the topic be known.
While the leading Associate Member nations joined in the chorus against that deadly move by International Cricket Council, they lost some of the sympathy from the Test playing nations after Kenya and Canada got brushed off in their opening matches. Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain on Sunday opined that the World Cup will be a better event without the weaker Associate nations, in that it does not give them a positive experience as well as making the premier event less spectacular.
But that is a view not shared universally by the bigger nations as Andrew Strauss, the English skipper, took a cautious approach and implied: Let’s get the World Cup over and see how they play and then decide.
And one of the Associates look intent on proving ICC and Ponting wrong. Ireland are at the top of the Associate ladder and have been for two years, and they want to prove that they deserve their place with their performance and shift the onus on the ICC.
Niall O’Brien, the Irish wicket-keeper batsman believes they are a good enough side to go a long way in the World Cup.
“We believe we are good enough to play in a World Cup. We pride ourselves to be top of the minnows. We got confidence that we can go a long way,’ he said.
On Saturday, Kenya were humiliated, being bowled out for 69 runs against New Zealand and losing the game by 10 wickets while Canada were handed a 210-run defeat by Sri Lanka.
The 29-year old left-hander said he was disappointed with the way Canada and Kenya played in their opening matches, but believes they have five more matches where they can come back strongly.
For the time being though the Irish wicketkeeper feels that they would rather not look too much into the future and try to concentrate on the job at hand.
“Obviously we want to play in 2015 in Australia and New Zealand, that’s a long way away so you never know where we are going to be then as an individual or as a cricket team,” said the Northamptonshire batsman.
“But it’s important first to get things right here in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka, move on and make a statement. If we can play well over the next five or six weeks then hopefully things will take care of themselves.”
That intent of making a statement starts with the first match against Bangladesh, which will be held on Friday.
