Ireland 'expect matches' against Full Members

Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom has said Ireland and Afghanistan must be able to schedule matches against Full Member nations to give credibility to the Associate pair's addition to the ICC ODI rankings table for 2019 World Cup qualification. If Ireland and Afghanistan do not get enough opportunities to play against Full Member nations, Deutrom said the ICC's latest decision to make qualification based on the rankings table would hold no significance.

"I see divisions have been created of ODI cricket," Deutrom told ESPNcricinfo following the ICC's announcement on Wednesday. Ireland and Afghanistan must finish in the top eight of the rankings by the September 30, 2017 cutoff deadline in order to automatically qualify for the World Cup. "Full Members have been held to account in terms of the opportunity to play in the World Cup. Ireland is in the first division of ODI nations. We fully expect matches to come. And if they don't, then questions will be asked about how robust is this structure if a rankings system has been created and there are no matches created."

Deutrom disagreed with the perception that the promotion was a case of one step forward, two steps backward for the two top Associates. The two steps backward conclusion is based on the premise that Full Members won't risk playing Ireland and Afghanistan especially when it could hurt their ranking if things don't go well on the field.

"I would read it differently," Deutrom said. "Reading between the lines, what has been approved today is for the very first time Full Members have to qualify for the World Cup. Only the top eight in the rankings will pre-qualify. What that means is every single ODI that is now played prior to the [2019] World Cup has a context.

"You can look at it two ways. Some countries may think, 'We don't want to play Ireland because we don't want to risk losing and therefore ranking points.' Some might say, 'We need to get out of the eighth or ninth position so why don't we play Ireland because that is going to get us a better chance of getting ranking points."

Deutrom did concede that under the new FTP from 2015-23, there are no guaranteed matches as every member, especially the top nations, can arrange bilateral series to suit their balance sheets. In the absence of any such obligation, Deutrom agreed Full Member countries could easily distance themselves but he felt that in order for the rankings to be properly credible the two new entrants needed to have opportunities to play matches.

"When this issue of 12-team rankings came to [the ICC chief executive committee] in November, there was certainly great support around the table for ensuring that we had a sufficient number of opportunities to play games. That did not translate into 'Here you go, here's a bunch of ODIs,' because it was yet to be discussed by the Board. But now that it is across the line I am not going to be shy about really pushing for some matches. We now do so with a much stronger mandate."

Deutrom said he was not aware of the approximate the number of matches Ireland and Afghanistan would need to play to strengthen their position before the September 2017 cut-off date but conceded they needed to aim for a minimum number of matches. Since the 2011 World Cup, Ireland had 26 ODIs, nine of which were against Full Members with two other scheduled matches against Full Members abandoned. However, this was a sharp decline for Ireland from the preceding four years. After 2007 World Cup through the end of the 2011 edition, Ireland played 47 ODIs.

Deutrom said the only way possible for him to create opportunities would be by working closely with the other Full Members and tap every single available slot. "There are certain opportunities for us to explore and exploit. Whether it be around inbound tours to the UK, teams playing around UAE, teams when they are flying to and fro to the Caribbean via London. We just sincerely hope that everyone is going to take the Board resolution seriously to try and make these rankings credible."

Deutrom also pointed out that in case Ireland and Afghanistan could not find higher-ranked opposition then at least they could play each other. "We still have the opportunity of playing against Afghanistan as they do against us. What is the alternative? The alternative is we have a ten-team World Cup. We have no opportunity to play against Full Members in a more structured environment. There is no means into an ODI structure, which this new system allows."

The other new rule approved by the ICC concerns the lowest-ranked Associate on the ODI rankings table contesting a play-off against the winner of the World Cricket League Championship. The winner of the play-off would automatically move up to the ODI rankings table for the next cycle with the defeated country getting relegated to the WCL Championship.

Asked if there was indeed any meritocracy in such a move as was claimed by the ICC, Deutrom approved of the promotion and relegation system put in place. "The view that particularly Ireland took is we were prepared to concede the point about relegation if only it guaranteed the concept of promotion."