The Associates' severe lack of Full Member practice needs to change

The West Indies needed only 137 to beat Papua New Guinea at Providence, and Brandon King wiped out eight of these inside the first over. It seemed to be a formality, even after Alei Nao trapped Johnson Charles leg-before with his first ball.

Three balls later, Nao hit Nicholas Pooran on the pads. The Papua New Guineans went up in unison. No, said umpire Rashid Riaz. Captain Assad Vala did not review – he probably felt the ball would have pitched outside the leg stump – but replays revealed three “reds”.

Did it matter? Pooran made an uncharacteristically slow run-a-ball 27 as the PNG bowlers stuck to a wicket-to-wicket line, often taking the pace off the ball, forcing the hosts to take risks. It was an important innings, given the context: though the West Indies won with an over to spare, they were 97-5 at one point. With Pooran, however, it was more about what he could have done. Even with that slow innings, no batter has scored more T20 runs than Pooran this year at a quicker rate. That was the wicket PNG were hesitant to claim for fear of losing a review.

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T20 World Cup schedule: Full fixtures list can be found here

One reason why PNG did not review was their lack of experience with the concept. They last played cricket at this level at the 2021 T20 World Cup, when they lost all three matches. One of the games, against Bangladesh, was their first T20I against an ICC Full Member (though they had played Afghanistan and Ireland before they had become Full Members).

PNG qualified for the 2021 World Cup through the 2021 Qualifiers (which were played in 2019). They were not as impressive in the 2022 Qualifiers. They then stormed through the 2024 East Asia-Pacific Qualifier, winning all six games. None of the three editions featured a television (third) umpire – something that has been in place in international cricket since 1992/93 – let alone the DRS.

DRS involves expensive technology and, given the unequal distribution of ICC’s wealth, few outside the Full Members can afford to use it for international matches, let alone domestic leagues. Even the ICC does not consider setting up television umpires in every venue hosting a World Cup Qualifier a project worth investing in.

The match at Providence was, thus, an unequal contest for reasons that have little to do with cricketing skills. On one hand were two-time champions West Indies, with cricketers who are – as a team as well as, in franchise leagues, separately – used to the DRS; on the other, a team lacking that experience.

Given how close the match turned out to be, a PNG win could not be ruled out had they reviewed the Pooran decision. It is worse for teams like the USA and Uganda, who have never played in a match involving DRS before.

This is not about DRS alone, which is a relatively recent concept. Every Associate nation receives a minuscule slice of the ICC pie. The limited budget hampers general cricketing quality. It is not difficult to understand that teams with limited budget and infrastructure will rise through the ranks if and only if they play the stronger teams on a regular basis.

Of course, they do play them at the ICC Trophies. When they lock horns in the Qualifiers, the Associates often turn out to be more than a handful. The Netherlands qualified for the 2023 World Cup ahead of the West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Ireland. Once they did that, they sent a plea to Indian teams to provide them with match practice. At the World Cup, they beat South Africa and Bangladesh. Uganda took down Zimbabwe to make it to the 2024 T20 World Cup. When they get a chance, the Associates do provide stern contest despite the inequality.

But what about bilaterals? Do the Associates get to play Full Members?

Since the 2022 T20 World Cup, the Full Members sides have played only five bilateral T20I series against Associate Nations: the UAE played against Afghanistan in February and December 2023, and New Zealand in August 2023; Namibia hosted Zimbabwe in October 2023; and in May, Bangladesh played a series in the USA. The last series was the only contest on this list where both teams qualified for this World Cup.

These were not one-sided contests. Namibia beat Zimbabwe 3-2 and the USA took down Bangladesh 2-1, while the UAE won at least once in each of their three series – and that included New Zealand, global finalists in all three formats between 2019 and 2021.

Three of the five Full Member representations on the above list are Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, who, along with Ireland, make up the Small Three, teams who have Test status but do not play in the World Test Championship (a competition where three teams play five Tests against each other but three-match series are rare outside these rivalries but no one bats an eyelid).

With four overs to go, West Indies needed 40 runs to win. Roston Chase was yet to get going, Andre Russell was new to the crease, and Papua New Guinea were daring to dream.

But a boundary spree sealed victory with an over to spare.

Scorecard: https://t.co/cwuYx6fPmf pic.twitter.com/BKiWChVXzM

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 2, 2024

Ireland’s 17 T20Is in bilateral series between the two T20 World Cups do not seem too bad until one considers that six of these were against Zimbabwe and three against Afghanistan.

Do the numbers look different if we go back in time? The ICC assigned T20I status to any T20 match between two nations from January 1, 2019. Since that date, the UAE have played 14 bilateral T20Is against Full Members (5 if one includes only the non-Small Three), Namibia 10 (0), Scotland 5 (2), the USA 5 (3), and the Netherlands 4 (2). Add the numbers inside the parentheses and you get 12 across five and a half years. Add the ones outside and you get 38. For perspective, Afghanistan alone have played 36 bilateral T20Is only against Full Members over the same period – the fewest among all Full Members.

Cricket has been a skewed sport to begin with, and continues to remain the same. There is no actual reason for teams having to “earn” Test and ODI status (other than their saleability of “prestige formats”), yet few question the ridiculousness of it all. T20Is were supposed to be more inclusive, a step towards making the sport more global than it has ever been.

To be fair, the ICC did take some steps. They rewarded international status to all games between nations; took only nine editions to expand the World Cup to 20 teams (for perspective, FIFA needed 12 editions and 52 years to go past 16 teams); provided the women’s World Cup a separate identity beyond the men’s edition (they used to be hosted together); and currently have at least one team from each Region at the World Cup. These are all welcome moves.

However, they have fallen short when it comes to the overall involvement of Associate Nations in mainstream, high-profile cricket.

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Perhaps the solution lies in Full Members touring Associate Nations while touring other Full Members. When teams visits Australia or New Zealand, they can play a brief series in Papua New Guinea; likewise, Nepal or the UAE on a tour of subcontinent; and so on. If these tours are difficult to arrange, for logistic or other reasons, the Full Members can always play Associates in other Full Members. For example, teams can play Scotland or the Netherlands in England on a tour of England, or Namibia in South Africa. If these tours become part of the four-year FTPs, things will change over time.

An alternative way to boost the quality of teams is to make it mandatory for Full Members to include nearby Associate Members team in their domestic tournaments. This has precedent. New Zealand played as a team in the One-Day Cup in Australia in the first six seasons of the One-Day Cup, from 1969/70 to 1974/75. Scotland and Ireland were part of the Benson & Hedges Cup in England for years. There are myriad examples of “A” teams appearing in domestic competitions of other nations.

Whether the ICC takes further efforts remains to be seen, but the current scenario remains suboptimal. And while we are on the ICC’s attempts at making cricket a global sport, where are the commentators from the Associate Nations in the T20 World Cup panel with insights built over years of watching the teams play away from the focus?

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