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16-team format for World Cup?

By Our Special Correspondent

Mumbai Sept. 18. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has made significant headway with regard to the format of the 2007 World Cup to be played in the Caribbean Islands. The success of Kenya — the African nation lost to India in the semifinals of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa — and some fine performances by Canada, Holland, Namibia — evoked a spontaneous debate among many ICC officials to expand the World Cup from 12 to 16 teams.

The ICC's Cricket Committee (Management), which deliberated on several issues over seven hours on Thursday at the Cooch Behar Room, Cricket Club of India, appears to be overwhelmingly in favour of a 16-team format for the 2007 event. The CC-M committee's decision will be placed before the ICC Executive Board for approval.

The ICC officials' enthusiasm for a bigger World Cup met with a very scathing response from a majority of the television commentators as the event in South Africa was approaching the knock-out stage.

Many of the commentators were former international and distinguished players. They felt that the ICC's flagship event should not be eroded. Some even went to the extent of questioning the ICC's decision to award Test status to Bangladesh which lost all the World Cup matches.

Another new tournament on the anvil is the ICC inter-club championship from 2004. The CC-Management members consisting of the chief executives of the Test playing nations, three associate members and technical committee and cricket related members have been asked to give their comments on the proposed ICC Club Championship for full and associate members.

This event is likely to be held in April 2004 at a venue depending on its capacity to raise money for the event. Since the Asia Cup is to be held during April, the first ICC Club Championship will not be held in Asia.

In order to augment the ICC's financial reserve the ICC Development (International) Ltd. has recommended to the CC-M the institution of a Four Team Super Series. This event will be held in South Africa from September 15-17, 2005. The four teams will be the Champion LOI team, the Champion Test team, Test team of Champions (Rest of the World) and LOI team of Champions (Rest of the World). The CC-M has approved the IDI proposal. Each team will consist of 13 players.

The first ICC awards dinner function will be held in London during the Champions Trophy in September 2004. The ICC will award prizes to the best player in Test match cricket and One-day Internationals and the best team in Tests and One-day Internationals and to the best young player.

The ICC is also contemplating to institute a corporate supported `ICC Players Ranking System' from April 2004.

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