Scots frozen out as Cricket World Cup a closed shop

SCOTLAND will take no part in the next Cricket World Cup following a shock decision to make the 2015 tournament invitation-only to the ten full members of the International Cricket Council, with no qualification process. Scotland are associate members.

The 2019 tournament will also be limited to ten teams, but there will be a qualifying process.

Cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith last night hit out at the controversial decision, taken at an ICC Executive Board meeting in Mumbai yesterday, which banishes the sport's emerging nations from the sport's biggest stage for the foreseeable future.

Smith said: "It is extremely disappointing news and it means that it will now be at least eight years until associate countries can qualify for the World Cup. The recent World Cup in the sub-continent has just been hailed as a great success.

"There were four smaller nations competing and it was clear for all to see that there were some very competitive games as well as Ireland's historic win over England.

"The ICC needs to learn from other sports that you cannot truly have a World Cup unless all countries have an opportunity to participate."

ICC officials claim they are catering for the smaller countries by expanding their T20 World Cup to 16 teams.

Meanwhile, Cricket Scotland, which was due to host a qualifying tournament for the 2015 event, have still to hear whether they will be offered an alternative.

Smith said: "We are contracted to the ICC to stage a qualifying tournament in 2013.

"That clearly won't be happening now but I would imagine there may still be a tournament of some sort for the leading associate countries."