Sidharth Monga
The ICC has confirmed today that the next two World Cups will be 10-team events. The 2015 edition of the premier 50-over tournament will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and the 2019 World Cup will be played in England. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s CEO, hinted that the 1992 format could be replicated, wherein all teams play each other in a round-robin league, and the top four make it to the semi-finals. The recently-concluded World Cup featured 14 teams, and the league stage was played in two groups of seven each, with the top four from each group playing the quarter-finals. The trimming of the event basically means that a team such as Ireland, which brought a lot of value to the previous two World Cups, will not be a part of the 2015 tournament.
To compensate, the World Twenty20 has been expanded to 16 teams, giving six Associate or Affiliate members a chance to play in a premier world event every two years, but no matter how well they perform there, they will not be part of the 50-over World Cup. Not until the 2019 event at least, for which there will be some sort of qualification competition, possibly for the last two slots.
After the 2019 event, a relegation and promotion system will be introduced to the newly conceptualised ODI league. That will give those teams hope to qualify for future World Cups. But the 2015 World Cup will be played only by the ten full members.