MoS of World Cup Qualifier Sikandar Raza blasts ICC for 10-team WC, hails struggle of Associates

Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza, who was the man-of-the-series in the recently concluded cricket World Cup Qualifier, said the trophy would be ‘a painful reminder’ of how his team could not make it to the 2019 World Cup, which will feature 10 teams compared to 14 teams in 2015.

In his speech after Afghanistan’s win over West Indies in the final, Raza also threw his support for Associate cricket teams and hailed Nepal for getting registered as an ODI side. He was also critical of the ICC's new rules for Associate Nations, and was quite scathing of the cricket body's move in front of top officials, including Dave Richardson.

"When I started playing cricket, I thought it was to unite countries, players of different background coming together to play this beautiful sport. Unfortunately, you'll see that's not going to happen in next year's World Cup. It's certainly quite a tough pill to swallow."

After winning two of their four matches in the Super Sixes stage of the tournament, Zimbabwe had to win what turned out to be their last match, against UAE, to seal a World Cup berth along with West Indies. They restricted UAE to 235 for 7 in 47.5 overs but a rain interruption revised Zimbabwe's target to 230 from only 40 overs. Zimbabwe came agonisingly close to lose by only three runs.

Raza had an impressive tournament. He scored 319 runs at 53.17 and took 15 wickets at 17.60, with three Man of the Match awards. However, instead of reflecting on his performance, Raza praised the hard work put up by Associate Teams.

"This trophy will also serve as a reminder of the hard work that Peter Borren and his Dutch players, Kyle Coetzer and his Scottish players, Rohan Mustafa and his UAE players, and all the other countries that came and couldn't make it to the World Cup," he said.

Raza, however, hailed Nepal's rise to ODI status at the tournament as a result of their eighth-place finish, but called attention to the fact that Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong had lost ODI status. This is in part due to the ICC's recent decision to limit ODI status to 16 countries. Since 2005, a minimum of six Associate countries had maintained ODI status, but the decision meant that now only four countries have that designation and Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong were stripped of that status due to finishing in the bottom two of the World Cup Qualifier.

"Yes there were some good things as well," Raza said. "Congratulations to Nepal and to have their ODI status for the first time but this trophy will also serve as a painful reminder that two of our brother countries lost their ODI status as well and I wish them the very best of luck. Not much to say to be honest, just a whole lot of emotions. Just a painful reminder to be honest," he said in the presentation ceremony.

The 2019 World Cup will be the first time that Zimbabwe will not participate in a World Cup since 1979.