Everyone loved the possibility of the mighty being toppled by the minnow in a one-off straight confrontation, and in bygone years some of the greatest sporting stories have been the upsets.
We all have our favourites!
What about 100/1 Foinavon winning the Grand National back in the Sixties?
What about big Croatian Goran Ivanisevic beating Pat Rafter in the Wimbledon final? He was a wildcard entry and ranked 125 in the world at the time.
What about Sunderland and Wimbledon winning the FA Cup and little Hereford knocking out the mighty Newcastle United in the 3rd round in 1972?
What about Buster Douglas knocking out the great Mike Tyson in 1990 to win the World heavyweight title?
What about Bangladesh beating Australia in the Cricket World Cup?
What about Ireland beating Pakistan in the 2007 Cricket World Cup?
These were great sporting upsets down the years and will never be forgotten because they were sensational news at the time. And that’s part of the attraction of minnows in any competition. Can you imagine the FA Cup without the little clubs? Obviously seeding has meant only the best get through to the latter rounds, but their dreams remain every year. Can you imagine the Tennis Grand Slams or the Golf Majors with only the best ten participants involved, and the Football World Cup with only the top ten countries competing? It is unthinkable.
That’s why the ICC’s strategy to eliminate the Associate Countries from future World Cups is tunnel vision, selfish and lacking any appreciation of the bigger picture. Driven by financial interests the ICC has looked at the balance sheet and the damage caused by the elimination of India and Pakistan in 2007 and now set procedures in place to avoid any repetition. The ICC has done a great injustice to the development of the game and all over the world, it has killed the dream. If you can never aspire to the world stage then your horizons are very limited and the whole ethic of sporting freedom of expression and achievement is seriously flawed.
Being a minnow is an integral part of everyday life and everyday sport. We are all different and in sporting terms not all players are top deck. Even in teams there are players who neatly fill the supporting roles and whose salaries pale beside the mega stars. One fleeting glance at the players’ contracts at Manchester United would certainly identify the mighty and the minnow at Old Trafford. Money talks, and that’s where the ICC has pitched its tent. On the Balance Sheet!
Lucrative television contracts are negotiated on the basis of viewership and inevitably the best teams are watched more than the lesser lights. However, you don’t need to throw out the baby with the bath water and surely the ICC can come up with a more balanced way forward than to exclude the non-test nations?
And what of the sporting value? Surely the best players and the best teams benefit from playing matches they are expected to win as it is useful preparation for the really big games? It’s a win-win situation unless you have tunnel vision or you are a Sky Sports cricket commentator! What a bunch of narrow-minded self-opinionated and overrated presenters! Ok they were great players in their day and that has given them a media platform, but their prowess as commentators demands wider skills and expertise that has failed them. Churning out all the old arguments about best playing best and shorter tournaments shows they have not moved with the times or learnt anything from contemporary sports. These guys are in a time warp and need to be educated in modern sport or replaced. The ICC needs to do the same as their vision for the future cannot succeed solely based on the generation of revenue.
The pressure is not on Cricket Ireland and their fellow Associate countries to upset the odds as the cricket pundits have already dismissed them as minnows, and expectations in the Commentary Box are low. The pressure is on the ICC and those same commentators to have a better understanding of their overall value and respect it.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
