Ireland is the No. 1 associate cricket nation in the world

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The world cup 2011 is finally over for the associates. No team could shuffle beyond the group stages, unlike what we saw in the last 3 world cups. The way the group stage was designed for this world cup, it was obvious that associates needed to win battles in more than one occasion against the elite teams. The organisers wanted to make sure that one or two upset would not cost a quarterfinal for the higher ranked team; and eventually, everything worked according to their plan.
It was the world cup of mixed achievements for the associates. In one side, we saw Ireland growing largely as the next "powerful" cricketing nation, and in other side, we also witnessed the demise of Kenyan cricket. Ireland carried their reputation as a "giant killer" from the last world cup, and proved that what they achieved in the past was not a fluke. They defeated England in an amazing high scoring chase, almost overcame Bangladesh, and played bravely against India and West Indies. They also sidelined Netherlands to prove that they are the best associate nation in the world. Ireland have now knocked harder at the ICC door; and their continuous progression in the international cricket must have strengthen their chance of gaining "test" status.

Kenya might want to forget this world cup completely. They could not manage even a single win, not even against Canada. They had the poorest average runrate of all teams (-3.042), giving 1366 runs, while scoring only 932 runs in their 6 matches. We had questioned Kenya Cricket's degrading performance in our earlier post. Kenya had their own internal problems, espcially the clashes between the team members and the management were on news at the past. It seems the unity and dedication that Kenya were once known for, do not exist anymore.

Canada and Netherlands have earned nothing but some personal achievements. The world cup is fruitful for Ryan Ten Doeschate, a Dutch Allrounder, who had scored a wonderful century against England and almost took his team to a victory. He also made century against Ireland. He is currently at 7th position in the list of top run scorers in this world cup so far, making 307 runs with an average of 61.40 in 6 matches. He also has 7 wickets in his name. Now the whole world knows who Doeschate is. Good news is that he will be in action in IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders. I think he will be a great asset for KKR. Canadian skipper Ashish Bagai will also cherish his 225 runs that he made in this tournament, and also a victory against arch rival Kenya.

Cosmic Cricket list a ranking of the associate nations according to their performances in world cup 2011.

1. Ireland
2. Netherlands
3. Canada
4. Kenya

Canada have won a match while Netherlands have not, but the Dutch side showed more bravery in the matches against the strongest opponents than Canada. In that context, we kept them in number 2. Ireland is undoubtedly the number 1, as they showed the qualities to become a top team. Kenya is at 4th position, we mean the last position.