Lack Of Quality? Scots Disproved ICC's Claim

Tim Wigmore says the World Cup Qualifiers demonstrated the lack of logic behind keeping the main draw to 10 teams

- Tim Wigmore

The end was unjust, and seemed nothing less than a violation of basic principles of sporting justice. Scotland were on track to pip the West Indies to a berth in the World Cup, when off-spinner Ashley Nurse struck Richie Berrington’s pad. The ball was just about in line with Berrington’s leg stump, but was rapidly going down the legside. Even some gnarled club cricketers might not have deigned to appeal.

Nurse did, and umpire Paul Wilson raised his finger. Twenty minutes later, rain intervened with Scotland 125-5 in pursuit of 197 to win. They were five runs behind par on DLS; had they scored the same number of runs after Berrington’s wicket without losing their fifth, they would have been four runs ahead on DLS.

And so Scotland, who had performed remarkably to overcome their financial limitations by thrashing Afghanistan, tying with Zimbabwe and coming within bad lbw decisions of beating both Ireland – when Andy Balbirnie appeared to be plumb lbw one run into his 105 – and the West Indies, were out.

The manner of their exit summed up so much that is wrong with world cricket today.

First, of course, the fact that the World Cup is only ten teams – at a time when the global depth in the sport has never been greater. “It’s hard to comprehend that there’s only going to be a ten-team World Cup,” said Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer.

This depth was highlighted yet again during the tournament, and not only in Scotland’s stirring performances.