Sunil Gavaskar backs the 10-nation World Cup format

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has bucked the prevalent trend and has backed the 10-nation World Cup which is slated to be held next year in England.

Writing in his column for mid-day, Gavaskar made few pointed statements which included him questioning the merit of teams like Ireland and Scotland which could make it through the qualifying stage to compete in the marquee event.

"The point here is simple that if Ireland and Scotland, from where most of the noise comes about the number of teams for next year's World Cup, were not good enough to qualify in an associate members event then how can they even think in terms of playing with the big boys in the World Cup? It's like subcontinent teams asking to be included in the football World Cup.

It has to be mentioned here that Scotland's shock win against the number one ODI side in the world - England, once again forced people to sit up and debate about the sanctity of ICC's decision of clipping the number of teams taking part in the World Cup to 10.

However, Gavaskar categorically brushed aside all the furore and said that one good game does not make a very good team and that if teams which do not qualify are included in the tournament, the entire standard of the World Cup takes a beating and dilutes the entire tournament.

In March this year, the ICC's World Cup Qualifier was held which included teams like Zimbabwe, Scotland, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong competing, apart from Afghanistan and West Indies.

There was no DRS used in the tournament and this hit Scotland hard, as they finished one point behind Afghanistan who qualified for the main round along with West Indies.