Ireland's hopes of playing at the next World Cup have been reignited after the ICC's cricket committee recommended on Wednesday that a qualifying system be considered for 2015.
The International Cricket Council had previously suggested that World Cup would be trimmed from this year's 14 teams to just the 10 Test nations for the next tournament, but ICC president Sharad Pawar requested a review on behalf of second-tier teams such as Ireland.
Ireland only narrowly missed out on a quarterfinal berth after beating England in Bangalore this year and the committee, which is chaired by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd and includes players, coaches and match officials, has backed Pawar.
ICC general manager David Richardson said one possibility is that the ICC's one-day rankings could be used to help determine qualification.
Ireland is currently ranked No. 10, above Test nation Zimbabwe.
Canada, Kenya and the Netherlands were the other associate members at the last World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The ICC wanted to trim the tournament in order to shorten the World Cup from its present seven-week schedule. But this year's World Cup was already two teams light compared to four years earlier and was widely considered a more interesting event than that last competition in the Caribbean.
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The International Cricket Council had previously suggested that World Cup would be trimmed from this year's 14 teams to just the 10 Test nations for the next tournament, but ICC president Sharad Pawar requested a review on behalf of second-tier teams such as Ireland.
Ireland only narrowly missed out on a quarterfinal berth after beating England in Bangalore this year and the committee, which is chaired by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd and includes players, coaches and match officials, has backed Pawar.
ICC general manager David Richardson said one possibility is that the ICC's one-day rankings could be used to help determine qualification.
Ireland is currently ranked No. 10, above Test nation Zimbabwe.
Canada, Kenya and the Netherlands were the other associate members at the last World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The ICC wanted to trim the tournament in order to shorten the World Cup from its present seven-week schedule. But this year's World Cup was already two teams light compared to four years earlier and was widely considered a more interesting event than that last competition in the Caribbean.
http://cricketnext.in.com
