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Dear Tony,

I have been following with great interest "the little big debate" which has been generated by the 2001 ICC Trophy feudal format.

Before we get into a chaotic debate over the morality and practicality of this structure, it has to be reminded that all Associates, and I underline all, had accepted prior to Kuala Lumpur 1997 to be ranked into two divisions with only the top flight eligible to play for the 2003 World Cup qualifications in Toronto. No one having had the courage to draw the logical ensuing conclusion, that is to scrap the Second Division totally because it was useless, we have now got ourselves into this mess.

The top ranked teams could easily argue that a token gesture of democracy has been produced by introducing the window game, maybe "drain pipe" would be more appropriate, and I have total sympathy with this view.

On the other hand why are 12 teams crossing the world to play a social tournament in Toronto? Would the ICC money not be better spent on basic development structures in these lower echelon Associates ?

In the middle of a phase in which ICC's global policy is trying to find its footing, clearly this tournament has managed to grab "the worst of two worlds". On one hand, we still have the ridiculous social gathering of "old boys" all in one place mostly at ICC's expense; on the other, quite rightly, we want to be sure that the best three teams get through to the World Cup where they will be given a prohibitive schedule and a visit of all the less interesting venues in the hope that they do not lower too much the general standard of the tournament.

I would be dishonest in not saying that for a country like Italy this structure in actual fact is a semi - disguised blessing. We are not good enough to qualify for the World Cup and should even this have occurred on merit, the demand of raising the standard of our national team even further for 2003 would have simply destroyed us after the big event. I would like to hope that most administrators of the 2nd Division Associates and maybe even some of the 1st Division ones would be humble enough to admit the same for their country.

There is currently a huge confusion been made between development and performance. I would challenge anyone to deny that Italy's performances from 1997 onwards have not been the most improved amongst the Associates. Yet, this has little to do with development in the sense of giving the game a durable structure in our country. Unquestionably, the victory over England Amateurs and promotion to Europe's top flight were important to gain exposure. The exposure brought credibility. Credibility generated funds. Funds can be a great thing if used properly. They can be distructive, however, if misused.

By the autumn of 1999, with an "Italian" playing county cricket, many people over here had lost focus on what remains the top priority: creating a cricket culture in Italy in, let us say, a 50 year time span.

My desk, by then, was flooded with faxes, emails, petitions and whatever else of Italiani from all over the world wanting to return home and play for the Nazionale. Something did not feel quite right or, to put in Alexander Pope's words, "in line with the great chain of being."

All these Italians by blood were fully elegible to play for Italy. On this controversial aspect, I was more than happy to continue my longstanding battle with ICC whose qualifications have forgotten completely the existence of "ius sanguinis" players. The point, however, was more delicate. Would it have been good for Italy, or any other country, to rise from oblivion to the top by doping its national team with outsiders?

Experience has suggested me the answer is: yes but only to a certain extent. You need good players simply because you need to be decent to develop. The alternative is sliding down. However, no mass transfusion of talent can close gaps that are due to structural differences in size and quality.

Consequently, Italy will go to Toronto with the same players that performed with dignity in last year's European Championships in Scotland. Whatever result we obtain, our tournament will finish on July 5th and we shall not play, in the extremely unlikely case we should win our group, in the "drain pipe" game simply because we do not belong, and consequently want to have no part, in a process of which it is much better to be a spectator than a part time disruptive actor.

Thanking you for your kind attention,

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Simone Gambino,
Rome,
Italy

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