"We talk about this only once in four years" - Aakash Chopra on more teams being included in the World Cup

Aakash Chopra has lamented that the discussions to increase the number of participating nations in the World Cup happen only once every four years.

The 2019 ODI World Cup was reduced to a ten-team affair from the 14 nations that had participated in the previous edition in Australia. The upcoming 2023 ODI World Cup is also supposed to be contested by ten teams.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra observed that the prospect of including more teams in the multi-nation event is a point of debate after every World Cup.

"The one thing I feel is that we talk about this only once in four years. When the 2019 World Cup happened, there was a discussion of including more teams, that the ten-team tournament is not fine. The same story will be there when the World Cup happens again," said Chopra, while responding to a fan question.

The former India player pointed out that just increasing the number of teams at the World Cup will not suffice as the associate nations don't get enough opportunities in the intervening period.

"If we think of bringing in a lot of teams as the tournament happens once in four years, I feel it is a token gesture. There is no reality in it because after the 2019 World Cup, I agree there was Covid in between but if we consider between 2015 and 2019, how many times big teams played against the small teams," observed Aakash Chopra.

Aakash Chopra believes the Test-playing nations should play the associate teams more often for the standards to improve.

"If they play one match in four years, there is not going to be any improvement in their cricket. If you have to do anything, you need to utilize the four years in between. Every big Test-playing nation should be obliged to play matches against one or two associate nations," added Chopra.

There are reports that the ODI World Cups post the 2023 edition could see 14 teams participating. However, the qualifying teams should play consistently, at least against the 'A' teams of the top nations, for the tournament to be competitive.

According to Cricbuzz - 14 teams likely to participate in the ODI World Cup cycle from 2023 to 2031.

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 2, 2021

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"I still feel you can increase the numbers in T20" - Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra feels more teams can participate in the T20I World Cup

Aakash Chopra signed off by stating that more teams can probably be featured in the T20I World Cup rather than the 50-over version of the global event.

"I still feel you can increase the numbers in T20, have the qualification rounds at the start and then make the small groups and play a round-robin in the end. It is okay even if it is a little long and I think that's what ICC is already planning," concluded Chopra.

The 2021 T20 World Cup will see 16 teams plying their trade. As per reports, the ICC is planning to add four more teams to the tournament after next year's World Cup in Australia.

Idea of 20 International Cricket Teams for T20I Worldcup 2024 is a fantastic idea which will definitely give massive exposure to the tournament & cricket around the globe 🏏

— Saeed Cricky🏏 (@SaeedCricky) May 13, 2021