2011: Ireland's cricket team beat England at the World Cup
2011: International Cricket Council ban 'associate' nations from the World Cup.
2015: Ireland's cricket team watch World Cup on TV like everyone else.
Desperately unfair. This year's World Cup was unnecessarily dragged out over too many weeks, so they're reducing the competitions by 4 teams, rather than playing the matches in a shorter period.
Only useless Zimbabwe get to go, out of the non-Test status nations. The World Cup is one-day cricket: Ireland are 10th in the world at this form of the game, whereas Zimbabwe are 11th.
What a disgusting application of the closed-shop principle. Ireland's captain, William Porterfield, is rightly furious:
"It's not just about Ireland. This could mean the death of cricket in a lot of countries … and all because a few full members are looking to make a few extra quid from the competitions. How they can turn around, shut out half the world and still call themselves a world governing body is an absolute joke.
"It is every full member's duty to look after world cricket. Now the whole integrity of the World Cup has been brought into question because this is not a World Cup, it's a glorified Champions Trophy."
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