ICC Cricket League Division 1 Starts with the Top Six Associat Members Ahead of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007

Ahead of the coming world cup crick championship, ICC introduced a competition named ICC Cricket League Division 1 where six top teams among the associate members of ICC are taking part and as all the six countries have got the ticket of this upcoming word cup cricket, so it is a tournament of preparing themselves before the facing the world stars. Through this tournament the participating countries will be able to work out the problem and the will be able to perform better in the final competition against the top ten teams of world cricket. Moreover, the importance of this tournament can be increased if you come to know about the information that the top two teams of this tournament will be qualified for the first ICC Twenty20 world cup which is supposed to be held this year. The tournament has opened yesterday in Kenya and the participating teams of the tournament are Kenya, Bermuda, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and Netherlands. Sportsfeatures reported:

Speaking at the opening ceremony in Parklands Sports Club in Nairobi, ICC’s High Performance Manager Richard Done said this event was a great chance for players and coaches to make their final preparations for the CWC in a competitive environment.

“This tournament is an end it itself as it will provide silverware and bragging rights to the top Associate side,” said Mr Done.

“But of far greater importance is the fact that the World Cricket League is a key stepping stone towards the main prize, the ICC Cricket World Cup, for each of these six teams.

“It will provide the perfect platform which the players can build on once they arrive in the Caribbean in a month and, with that platform, they will be well equipped to be competitive.

“That ability to compete at the next level up is crucial to giving the Associate game the credibility it needs to flourish on a long-term basis.

“Only with the credibility that comes from the desire of players to compete at the highest level possible can we hope to make our strong sport even stronger from top to bottom as it is the only way we can encourage fans, sponsors and Full Members to give us the support required,” he added.

Mr Done highlighted the progress that has already been made towards this goal when he said: “As part of our commitment to close the gap between Associates and Full Members we have made sure these teams are now playing much more meaningful cricket than ever before.

“Between the World Cup in 2003 and the end of 2005, there were 11 ODIs involving Associate Members. In 2006 and through to the start of the World Cup, they will have played another 62 ODIs, including 17 against Full Members.

"For the first time, all six countries have had full-time national coaches in place for at least 12 months leading into the World Cup. This is a key factor in improving playing stardards"

The tournament will be very important for the teams as the matches of this tournament will be recorded as the ODI matches by ICC. This is a good initiative to uplift the performance levels of the teams which will make the world cup cricket more competitive. I would like to see these things frequently in future which will indirectly help cricket to spread out cricket in the world.