After the blasting opening match of India vs Bangladesh, cricket world cup lost its pace with the two boring matches between uneven teams. New Zealand vs Kenya and Sri Lanka vs Canada made spectators sleep because there were no competition at all.
Both Kenya and Canada, the associate teams playing in world cup for few times now, had nothing to do but to stand on the crease. Really, this shows how big the gap between the test teams and the associate teams is. Can we ever expect the associate teams rise and win a cup?
We talked about Kenya in last post, so there is nothing more to say. If you haven't read it, click here to read. Let's see the performance of Canada against the cup favorite Sri Lanka. I should appreciate Canadian bowlers a little, because they put some efforts in bowling, though Sri Lankan team managed to get that 300+ score. However, if we look close to the scorecard, we will find that it was only the contribution of three batsmen who put that runs. Thanks to Jayawardene's century (100), and half centuries from Sangakkara(92) and Dilshan (50) for that, otherwise, the remaining batsmen were a fuss. Big applaud for Canada to take 7 wickets. Though at the end they lost the match by mighty 210 runs, they can still be happy that they did better job than Kenya :).
ICC should find a way to save the world cup from boring matches. But, I don't suggest kicking the associates out of the world cup like ICC is doing for 2015 world cup. ICC could play one competitive match everyday, and not the continuous associate-test matches. This will keep the spectators bound to their tv sets and the attraction about the world cup will not fade off.
What ICC can do to save cricket in associate countries
When I say that associate-test matches are boring, I DON'T MEAN associates should be kept out of the world cup. For the betterment of cricket, there should be more teams to take part. But, ICC should try to fill the gap between the teams by holding competitions. And this should not be done just before the world cup. The action should be taken way ahead of the world cup. How can we test whether the associates are getting better than before unless they play matches against test teams? For all these 4 years between the world cups, associates just play among themselves. The only way to improve your ability is to compete with the better person. Let the associates play with the test teams in a series once in a year, if not regular. I remember there used to be a time when Kenya used to play regularly in ODI tournament against India and Bangladesh. But, where is such tournament now? Ireland haven't played in any competitive tournament except the world cup.
