The ICC Trophy in Canada this year looms as a great opportunity for Associate cricketing nations to show the world that they are on the right path in their bid to attain full One Day International status. Of course there is also the lure of three qualifying places at stake for the 2003 World Cup in Africa.

However, are all 24 nations competing in the ICC Trophy being given an equal opportunity to win or finish in the top three?

Unfortunately it doesn't appear so! Why? Because the tournament is being divided into two divisions, with the supposedly stronger teams in Division One and the weaker teams in Division Two.

But wait! The ranking of these two divisions was based totally around matches that were played all the way back in 1997! The so called "rankings" do not take into account anything that has happened since then.

So with that in mind has there been any changes in the rankings since 1997? Well that is the problem! No one can really answer that question with 100 percent accuracy.

The only way of finding out the true positions of the Associate member countries is to scrap the divisions at the ICC Trophy.

After all, lets be honest, the Division Two nations have only a tiny chanceof finishing in the top three using a proposed system mentioned on the June 28, 2000 edition of Beyond the Test World. This proposal only allowed for two teams from Division Two to proceed to the next stage and even that would involve a match against the seventh and eighth ranked division one teams first. Now lets examine the rankings or two divisions.

DIVISION ONE:
Group A - Canada, Fiji, Netherlands, Singapore, Scotland, UAE
Group B - Bermuda, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Papua-New Guinea, USA

The nations above are considered to be the best 12 nations outside of the full One Day International countries. Well more accurately, they WERE in 1997 they may not be any more!

The nations below are in DIVISION TWO:
Group C - Argentina, East & Central Africa, France, Israel, Malaysia, Uganda
Group D - Germany, Gibraltar, Italy, Namibia, Nepal, West Africa

It could be argued that many of the Division Two nations could beat many of the division one nations on any given day. Nepal, Namibia and Uganda are fast emerging cricketing nations. Argentina, with several players under the age of 20 in its squad is expected to re-establish itself while the progress of Germany, France and Italy has been more rapid than many could have hoped. Malaysia, East Africa, Israel, Gibraltar and West Africa are also tipped to have strong sides.

The only fair system is to divide the teams into four groups of six using the 1997 rankings combined with recent results to some up with groups that are evenly ranked. For instance Group A could comprise nations ranked 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21 and they would play each other once. It may look something like this:

Group A: Scotland, Denmark, Nepal, Germany, Papua-New Guinea, Israel
Group B: Netherlands, Canada, USA, Singapore, Fiji, Italy
Group C: UAE, Uganda, Namibia, East & Central Africa, Argentina, Gibraltar
Group D: Ireland, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Malaysia, France, West Africa

Naturally the top two teams from each group would qualify for the quarter-finals. A competition of this importance must be decided fairly. All nations must start the tournament on an equal footing with an equal chance to qualify for World Cup 2003. Considering how long it is between ICC Trophy tournaments an opportunity to get this right should not be wasted.

Ben Stinga
Perth, Australia

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