Scotland defeated world No1 England in a high-scoring ODI in Edinburgh while Ireland gave a good account of themselves in their inaugural Test. However, both teams won’t be participating in next year’s World Cup in England after the tournament was reduced to 10 teams from 14. West Indies and Afghanistan had qualified for the 2019 World Cup after going through the qualifiers in March this year.
Writing in his column for the Mid-Day newspaper, Gavaskar said: “Scotland’s surprise win over England has again raised the cry about the number of teams for next year’s World Cup. These people have forgotten that there was a tournament among Associate members and the two of the bottom ranked Test playing countries to qualify for next year’s World Cup. Afghanistan and West Indies qualified by getting to the finals.
“The point here is simple that if Ireland and Scotland, from where most of the noise comes about the number of teams for next year’s World Cup, were not good enough to qualify in an associate members event then how can they even think in terms of playing with the big boys in the World Cup? It’s like subcontinent teams asking to be included in the football World Cup.
“Get real guys, one win does not make you good enough to play in the cricket World Cup. If these teams are included then like we have seen in previous editions, the quality of the game comes down and dilutes an event as big as the World Cup.”
