Impending rivals UAE and Ireland united off pitch in opposition to Cricket World Cup cut

At the pre-match press conference on Tuesday before Wednesday's World Cup match between UAE and Ireland, both Khurram Khan and William Porterfield agree: A smaller field is worse for Associates.

The UAE have played just three matches against top-eight world cricketing sides in the last 19 years. Munir uz Zaman / AFP

The UAE and Ireland may be rivals on the field at the Cricket World Cup in Brisbane on Wednesday, but they are united in the same campaign off it. Each of them have had their prospects of making it back to the next World Cup severely hindered by the decision to cut the competition to 10 teams. At Tuesday's pre-match press conferences, Khurram Khan, the UAE's leading batsman, and William Porterfield, the Ireland captain, agreed the decision needs to be reviewed.

More matches

Porterfield is angry his side have had just nine matches against the top eight sides since the last World Cup. Compared to the UAE, they are lucky: the national team have had just three in the past 19 years.

“It is not just the case of coming to the World Cup and expecting us to do well without playing any games against them before it,” Khurram said.

No quick fix

The UAE had warm up fixtures in the week before this competition against Australia and Afghanistan. “It is harsh on Associates that you expect them to do well, after four years you give them two matches then expect them to beat everybody,” Khurram said. “That is not going to happen. It is a slow process, it is going to take time, but if you look at some of the games, they have been very close games.”

Increase chances

Porterfield agreed there needs to be more opportunities for the non-Test nations outside of the global events. “We’re playing two games a year against top nations,” he said. “If you add up the amount of games the four teams have qualified, we’d be struggling to touch on 20. Teams are playing 20-25 or more a year, so that’s a big difference in fixtures over four years between competitions.”

Online petition

Porterfield said he had yet to sign an online petition demanding the ICC revisit their decision, but is glad people are agitating for change. “The more people that can get behind that, hopefully things can change,” he said. “It’s not just a case of narrowing down the teams, but it’s a case of expanding the game.”

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