Murgatroyd Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor
IF ASSOCIATE cricketing nations needed any attention, theyare getting their fair share at this World Cup.
Before even a ball was bowled, their sheer numbers - nearly 38 per cent of the 16 competitors - became the focal point of a hot debate, fuelled further with the role unranked Ireland played in eliminating big guns Pakistan from the tournament, and further by lowly ranked Bangladesh's part in the demise of another giant, India.
And even after Kenya's elimination at the hands of England, Kenya's skipper, Steve Tikolo, made a plea for more games against the top teams.
"I've been saying this since time immemorial - more games," he told reporters.
"Between now and September there is nothing for us. If you want the associate members to come up, you need to give them more games."
Cricket's minnows are keen to let the world know they belong and like family, the International Cricket Council (ICC) - the game's parent body, shares that belief. With the help of its ranked teams, it is looking to stroke them through that process.
Given the status
"We've given these sides one-day international status through 2009," admitted Brian Murgatroyd, the ICC's media and communications manager. "What that means is they are in a position to try and attract these full member sides to go and play them."
He continued: "Our belief is in order for these sides to get better they have to play more cricket and they have to play more cricket against the top sides.
"We believe that the way the game will grow and get stronger in the world is to ensure it's got a broad base and support. It's not just about a small, elite group of teams playing each other all the time," Murgatroyd explained.
Prior to the World Cup, the ICC ran a World Cricket League championship among its 87 associates and affiliates from which the top six qualified for this World Cup; and for the last two years it has held a Winter Training Programme (High Performance Programme) which caters to the top players among the top-six associates and helps them to acquire a full-time coach.
"From those six sides we draw the four best players and we've taken them to an intense eight-to- 10-week camp in South Africa at the High Performance Centre there (University of Pretoria)," said Murgatroyd.
Commenting further, he outlined: "Basically, what happens at the Winter training camp is that these players eat, sleep, drink, talk cricket day in, day out. They train as professional athletes, they work with top coaches, which a lot of these guys have not done before.
"They also look at aspects of your psychology, vision, coordination, every aspect of cricket that you can possibly think of - recovery, stretching, specific training for specific aspects."
Next time, the ICC is hoping to have the camp at its own Global Cricket Academy that's being built in Dubai.
"That's going to be a resource which is going to be run by Rod Marsh and all our members can utilise," the ICC media chief pointed out. "There will be all sorts of facilities there - over 40 net pitches, indoor training facilities, state-of-the-art sports science."
