With just three weeks left for the ICC World Cup 2015, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has handed England Cricket team a big blow. The games apex governing body has threatened to disqualify England from participating in the upcoming mega tournament if they don’t sort out issues pertaining to player selection eligibility criteria’s. The England team are currently placed under investigation. 183 Days The ICC has confirmed that England is under investigation and could risk disqualification from the upcoming World Cup after a dramatic change in the international qualification laws. According to ICC Law 3.3, a player becomes eligible if “the Player is a Resident of the relevant country. In other words: the Player has resided in the relevant country for a minimum of 183 days in each of the immediately preceding seven years (male Players only).” The matter escalated after England Captain Alastair Cook was omitted from the 15 man English squad and replaced by the Irishman, Eion Morgan. Jayantha Dharmadasa, Sri Lankan ICC board member responded to this by saying “Morgan is about as English as I am. I think the board with myself included has just about had enough of England assuming they have the right to select players who become ‘English’ after half a season of county cricket. It is just getting beyond a joke.” South African ICC Board Member, Chris Nenzani said “What the old law states is that if I decided to have a holiday down in Devon once every two years for a couple of months – and my grandfather was from there – then I could play for England” The new law states that the Player must be a Resident of the relevant country, in other words: the Player has resided in the relevant country since the age of 6 years and 6 months without more than 12 months out of the country. ICC became concerned when Gary Ballance (Zimbabwe) edged out Ben Stokes (New Zealand) as being the final man selected in the English 15-man World Cup squad. “Zimbabwe and New Zealand aren’t even good at cricket – and the West Indies aren’t much better!” said Dharmadasa, in reference to “English” fast bowler Chris Jordan, who was born in Barbados. The new laws have affected teams across the world. Australia is suspected to have left Steve O’Keefe (Malaysia), Moises Henrique (Portugal) and Usman Khawaja (Pakistan) out of the squad, although they would have qualified to play under the new laws. South Africa also has put Robin Peterson on stand-by in case Imran Tahir (Pakistan) does not qualify to play.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 19:19:35 +0000
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