Associate nations requested ICC to hold emergency meetings

The associate nations have requested International Cricket Council (ICC) to hold emergency meetings with their representatives before the ICC executive committee reviews its decision on the composition of the 2015 World Cup.

"We have requested a chance for our elected representatives to put our case in a meeting with the ICC in the next seven to 10 days, well ahead of the annual meeting, otherwise the Hong Kong discussions are likely to be the same 10 people having the same debate about the same issue," Cricket Ireland's chief executive Warren Deutrom was quoted as saying in The Guardian.

ICC president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday requested a review of the decision to cut down participation in 2015 World Cup to 10 Test-playing nations, throwing a lifeline to associate nations like Ireland and the Netherlands who were impressive in the 2011 World Cup.

The ICC executive board will now review the decision at its annual conference in Hong Kong in June in view of the widespread criticism.

"This is a line in the sand issue. We want to solve this within the family and we are prepared to review all possible remedies but the ICC should be in no doubt about the depth of our resolve," Deutrom said.

"The ICC has received widespread condemnation from around the world for not considering their duty to cricket as a whole and are now willing to consider whether they have made a mistake. That is progress."

Richard Cox, the chief executive of the Royal Netherlands Cricket Board, said pressing for a qualification tournament was at the centre of the associates strategy.

"We've done a great deal of research over the last week, particularly Warren Deutrom of Ireland, had a lot of letters of support, and we've also had some experienced sports lawyers offering us help. On that basis we felt we were at least able to contest the decision around the opportunity to qualify and that is what we've done," he said.