Dear Tony,

As a cricket fan of a nation, Nepal, who are placed in the second division and who, in my opinion, have a legitimate shot at making it to the World Cup - I find the World Cup qualification system adopted by the ICC appalling.

All nations should have a fair shot at qualifying for the World Cup.

I propose that the top three sides of the two 1st division groups and the top side in the two 2nd Division groups be placed in two groups of four. The winner of each group would qualify for the World Cup while the second place sides play a playoff match for the third qualifying spot.

I don't believe that the 4th placed teams in the first division deserve to progress any further as they would not have even finished in the top three of their own group and there are only three World Cup qualification spots so they have no case to complain.

Biplav Gautam
Bangkok, Thailand

PS - I am really disappointed that Nepal did not qualify for the Asia Cup, as I firmly believe that just being able to play the likes of India and Pakistan once would develop Nepali cricket exponentially. Hopefully in two years time we will get our act together.

As I mentioned before, I feel Nepal can quickly achieve Test status, but we need a lot of ADMINISTRATIVE support from the ICC and/or ACC as Nepalis are not well versed in developing sports as we lack a sports culture in our country.

Greetings,

I have been an avid reader of bttw since, well your first issue, and I have enjoyed reading about cricket in different parts of the world tremendously. But that is really neither here nor there :)

The reason I am writing is that I belive I have a way of coming up with a "fairer" way to run the ICC Trophy 2nd round should a second division team win their playoff match.

Rather than inheriting the points that the 4th place team "earned" (which will probably be very few). I think that they should start with a clean slate after the second round and have the matches against the top 3 teams that they are playing count double while the match against the other playoff winner count as it usually would. This is sounds confusing but I will use an example to show my point

For the sake of argument say the seedings end up being the actual final standings of each group. That leaves us the following:

Division 1
Group A					Group B
1 Scotland				1 Ireland
2 Holland				2 Denmark
3 Canada				3 Hong Kong
4 UAE					4 Bermuda

Division 2
Group A: 1 Namibia; Group B: 1 Malaysia

This means that the playoffs would be Bermuda-Namibia and UAE-Malaysia. Then say for the sake of argument UAE and Namibia win there matches. UAE inherits the points they had from the 1st round and continues on normally. Namibia on the other hand would have 0 points. The matches against Scotland, Holland and Canada would then be worth double(4 points win, 2 points draw/tie/NR) and the match against UAE would be worth the standard 2-1-0. The reason I believe this is a fair solution is that this way should Namibia win all of their matches they would finish 1st in the final group rather than hoping for a 4th place finish the way the rules are now.

*WHEW* If you are still reading this, thank you for taking the time, and I hope this format is giving some consideration, because it would be a shame for a nation to not qualify for the world cup, just because the ICC ranked them 13th or 14th rather than 10th or 11th.

Cheers,
Brien Aronov
WIlder, VT, USA

Tony,

I am very disappointed with the standard of Cricket played in Belize. A small country with two cricketing bodies both at loggerheads with each other is certainly not in the best interest of Cricket. I am from the Caribbean moved to Belize about ten years ago.

I have followed cricket all my life from the day's of Sir Frank Worrell to Brian Lara.

The Belize National Cricket Association is made up of teams from the rural areas of Belize, they have kept the game alive, without much knowledge of the rules or regulations of Cricket.

The other Body " The Belize Cricket Association" is made up of experienced cricketers from eleven different cricketing countries, who have the know how and experience to help in the coaching at the grass root level.

I myself have refused to participate in any games with certain teams from the rural association, as it is evident that the level of umpiring is way below the standard of umpiring. The wicket during the week is used to graze cows and other farm animals.

In order for cricket to develop in a country with very little cricketing experience, we need to somehow bring the both associations together, improve the standard of unpiring, improve the wickets, coaching in all areas of cricket is essential.

One must bear in mind that cricket was never seen on television in Belize like in the other Caribbean countries, where it is was customary for schools to give a half day off in order to see an inter-island cricket game,or a test match.

The ICC visited Belize and unfortunately they were hosted by the Belize National Cricket Association, (the name was recently change from the Belize Rural Cricket Association) the true association which is the Belize Cricket Association who have been in existence as far back as one would care to remember were not even accorded a meeting to put forward a case for the future benefit of cricket in Belize.

This is the second year a competition hosted by the Belize Cricket association for all secondary schools takes place . The Governor General opened the games last saturday, if cricket is to be improved it has to be at the school level.

I do not expect the ICC to intervene in a local problem, but before deciding on any help in the development of cricket here in Belize I would strongly suggest that they consult with all parties concerned.

The future of cricket in Belize is with the youth. I hope the ICC would offer some assistance.

Tony, I am writing so you would have an insight as to the situation here in Belize.

Your Sincerely.

Miguel A. Ellis.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd