ICC executive president urges Scotland to build stronger relationship with England

Senior Sports Writer

Saturday 21 July 2012

The national side's One-Day International meeting with England next month may have been called off but the top official at world cricket's ruling body has urged Cricket Scotland to intensify its relationship with its neighbour.

Douglas Lockhart turns away a ball from Graeme Swann in the Scotland-England One-Day International at Citylets Grange in 2010. Picture: Craig Watson/SNS

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Kevin Ferrie

During a three-day visit to Scotland this week as part of a European tour, Alan Isaac, the former chairman of New Zealand Cricket who was appointed as the International Cricket Council's last executive president just three weeks ago, explained that he is keen to see more countries become competitive at elite level.

Declaring an interest because his parents emigrated from Scotland in the 1920s, he expressed the hope that changes to eligibility rules will soon be brought in to make it easier for the associate countries to strengthen their sides. However, he also recommended that both Cricket Scotland and Ireland should follow the Kiwi model by working hard with the English. "New Zealand cricket has struggled through and, in some ways, there's a link to the challenge that both those bodies have got," he said. "My encouragement to both Scotland and Ireland is to get as close to England and get as much support as they can."New Zealand cricket moved forward in the 1980s once Australia started playing Test matches against us. They sent a side over in 1946, we got thrashed and they only sent B sides for the next 25 years. It wasn't until the early '70s, when we beat them in a Test match with their top side, that, all of a sudden, they recognised us and saw the benefit of having strong New Zealand cricket when they wanted to play their Tri-Series and do other things."I think it's important for England, and they recognise that, and there is now a programme being put together with full members scheduling matches against the associates. That is key to broadening the game."Isaac has put himself in the curious position of taking on a post he has successfully campaigned to have abolished since, at the end of his two-year term, the ICC will undergo a transition in which the executive power will be taken on by a chairman-led board, with the presidency becoming more of a figurehead role. That is part of a process of modernisation; the ICC has recently shown its commitment to the growth of the sport at elite level by ring-fencing funding for Scotland and Ireland to develop their international teams."The model we are adopting is much more in line with modern practice and I'd like to think that at the end of my two-year term the ICC is seen in an improved light in terms of the governance of the game. It's tended to come in for a lot of criticism for how it deals with issues and I'd like to think we can improve on that," said Isaac.In saying so, he recognises that with huge matters such as corruption and security to address, the organisation has come under fire for some of its decisions.That also applies to the way it is promoting the sport beyond the existing Test countries at a time when, for example, rugby has grown from its eight founder International Rugby members, to more than 100 involved in global competition.That is crystallised in the debate over reducing the number of teams participating in the World Cup – from 14 in 2015 to 10 in 2019 – with the clear danger being that lack of variety will see interest drop off.However, Isaac notes that it would be wrong for cricket to measure itself directly against other sports and believes that in some ways it has the capacity to grow more effectively. "I think it is widely agreed that 10 teams is the right number and I'd like to think we'd get to a situation where all of those teams could win it," he observed. "The problem rugby's got is they have 20 teams in the finals but as we know only maybe five of the sides can win it. "So I don't think those sort of world tournaments should be development forums. You want a competition that could be played over a reasonably short period of time to maintain everyone's interest and a reduction in mis-matches."To that end, it is worth noting that after more than 80 years of football World Cup tournaments there have still only been eight different winners, but the key to growth at the elite end, which for cricket is also heavily restricted by weather conditions and facilities, is through qualifying competitions.Isaac notes that Roddy Smith, Cricket Scotland's chief executive, shares the view that a 10-team tournament is the right size, as long as a qualifying competition is part of it."We've agreed to that for 2019 and we've agreed that there must be a qualification process. There's a discussion about whether the top eight automatically qualify. Ireland, for example, have an ambition to be in the top eight and, therefore, automatically qualify, but I think there could be a pretty interesting competition around the qualification for those last two spots," he observed."Whether it is seven qualifying automatically with three spots to be contested or it's eight and two, that will develop as we move past 2015 and I think most of the associates and affiliates are happy with that. The key aspect for them is that they have the opportunity to qualify which has been agreed as far as the 2019 tournament is concerned."

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ICC executive president urges Scotland to build stronger relationship with England

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