ICC World Cup 2019: The story of the Top 10 & beyond

The cricketing world is boiling with excitement as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 is literally days away from its initiation. 10 teams will fight it out this time in a round-robin format, similar to the 1992 edition of the tournament. While the top 4 teams will make it through to the knockout stage, only one team of the 10 participating teams will climb the pinnacle and be crowned champion on 14th July 2019.

Before the gladiators walk into the Colosseum, on 30th May, let us take a step back and appreciate all these 10 teams who have managed to qualify for the grandest event of the cricket world. While we gear up, for some stupendous on-field performance at the 'Mecca' of cricket, let us look back at the process of qualification for the top 10 teams.

The Top 8

England Cricket World Cup Kit Launch

As per the standard practice in any global tournament, England qualified automatically, on account of being the host nation. The remaining 7 teams qualified on the basis of their ICC ODI ranks, which were taken into account till 30th September 2017. Thus Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa & Sri Lanka automatically qualified for the biggest event of the cricketing world.

The Bottom 2 and beyond

Ireland v England

With 8 spots sealed for the World Cup, Scotland, Afghanistan, Nepal, Hong Kong, West Indies, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea and the host nation (Zimbabwe) fought it out for the last 2 spots, at the Harare Sports Club in March 2018. Quite contrary to expectations, the ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2018 turned out to be one of the most keenly contested multi-nation tournaments in recent times. The steep ascent in performance standard of the associate nations ensured that ICC full members like West Indies, Ireland or Afghanistan did not have a cakewalk in the tournament.

Windies & A Fair Share of Fate

Australia v West Indies – One Day International

It was a matter of embarrassment for the Windies themselves, that the 2 times World Champions had to take part in the World Cup Qualifiers, instead of automatically qualifying. Hence, it was a no-brainer that the island nation began the tournament as one of the pre-tournament favourites to qualify for the main event at England.

They began their campaign by living up to the expectations, storming through the group stages, undefeated. The first major blip in their performance was at the hands of Afghanistan, in the first match of the Super Six stage. They failed to hold on to their nerve at the final moments and lost the encounter by 3 wickets. As a result of that significant loss, the Caribbeans faced a do-or-die encounter in their last Super Six match against Scotland.

In the decisive encounter, the Windies set a below-par target of 199 for Scotland. However, in a cruel twist of fate, the Scottish were stranded by inclement weather conditions, with 74 more runs needed to win the match from 15 odd overs. Unfortunately, no further play was possible and the underdogs were found 5 runs short of the DLS par score. The Scottish dream to feature in the 10 nation World Cup crashed then & there and the Windies saved themselves from further ignominy. Eventually, they were defeated by Afghanistan in the inconsequential final, but that did not stop them from booking a spot in the top 10 teams.

Afghani Resurgence

Scotland v Afghanistan - One Day International

This was perhaps the biggest resurgence shown by a team in a multi-nation tournament after the Imran Khan-led Pakistan side of 1992. Quite similar to Pakistan of 1992, the tournament began with an injury threat for Afghanistan. Their full-time regular skipper, Asghar Stanikzai, had to be left out of the starting 11, owing to his lower back injury.

Rashid Khan, the teenage sensation from global franchise cricket, was handed over leadership duties, for the initial half of the tournament. The decision backfired big time, as the youngster succumbed to pressure, leading Afghanistan to 3 successive defeats, deteriorating his own bowling figures as well in the process.

A fairytale needed to unfold for the Afghans to qualify for the World Cup and the comeback of their full-time skipper provided the ideal impetus needed for the Asian side. Afghanistan raced to 5 successive wins after the 3 losses, with a couple of results of other matches, going their way. In the process, they defeated the Windies, UAE, Ireland, Nepal and topped it off with a victory over the Windies again in the finals.

Mr. Forest Steven Whitaker III, the American actor, director & producer, directed a movie called "Rising from the Ashes", which was released as recent as 2012. The movie, which deals with a national cycling team from Rwanda and their success story, at the background of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, received a lot of appreciation from eminent movie critics like Frank Schneck. It won't be surprising, if "Rising from the Ashes-II" is made anytime soon, on the rapid rise of Afghan cricket in the international platform, at the background of war, internal conflicts and unrests in Afghanistan.

A 10 Team World Cup - Not The Way Forward

LG ICC Awards Shortlist Announcement

ICC has received criticism from all quarters for hosting a 10 team world cup, thus almost eliminating any scope for associate teams, to participate in the main event. The reason, as cited by ICC, is to maintain competitive cricket in every match of the World Cup. However, it needs to be considered, that apart from the top ODI nations like India, South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia there are teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies who are performing inconsistently in international cricket, at the moment. The gulf of playing standard between the teams like Ireland, Zimbabwe, Scotland, who missed the flight to England by a whisker, and the teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies are not much.

In fact, Sri Lanka got thrashed by Zimbabwe, in a bilateral series in 2017. So, the competitiveness would have sustained, even if it was a 14 team world cup. At a time, when cricket is looking to extend horizons, it is a suicidal decision by ICC to eliminate all associate teams from the World Cup, in spite of their appreciable performance, in the last few months. Hopefully, better sense prevails and ICC decides to extend the World Cup to 14 teams, next edition onwards, encouraging globalization of the game.

Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on ICC World Cup schedule, news, world cup points table, live scores, most runs, most wickets and fantasy tips.