ICC chair: Super League hugely helpful for Associate cricket but 50-over format risks irrelevancy

Associate nations have benefited from gaining "experience of playing teams ranked above [them]" but with the Super League structure not being renewed for 2023-27, the future of 50-over cricket is uncertain

ICC chair Greg Barclay has praised the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League for creating a "pathway" for Associate nations.

The 2020-23 cycle featured the world's top 13 ODI sides, with Netherlands – who won the 2015-17 World Cricket League Championship – enjoying bilateral series against England, Ireland, Pakistan, West Indies, Afghanistan, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

They finished bottom of the league but went on to book a spot at the upcoming World Cup in India – their first appearance at the 50-over showpiece since 2011 - after securing a top-two finish in the final qualifying event in Zimbabwe.

Fellow Associate nation Scotland also impressed at the qualifying event, finishing ahead of full members Zimbabwe and West Indies in the Super Six and only missing out on a spot in the top two on net run rate.

These successes, Barclay believes, are the product of teams gaining "experience of playing teams ranked above [them]".

^{Scotland also impressed at the final 2023 World Cup qualifying event [ICC]}

However, with the Super League structure not being renewed for the 2023-27 ODI cycle leading into the 2027 Cricket World Cup, he believes work needs to be done to ensure an equivalent system is put in place. Otherwise, he warns, the format may continue its descent into "irrelevancy".

"I don't think there is any doubt that the Super League was hugely helpful in terms of a pathway to Associate counties," Barclay said.

"The fact that you are seeing some of the performances from the Associate members over here, in large part, was due to the fact that they have had the experience of playing teams ranked above where they are."

On the format's future, he continued: "It's no secret that T20 is in a pretty good place. Test cricket has had a shot in the arm [with the World Test Championship] but maybe we've lost our way a little bit in the 50-over format. We need to address both context and relevance and the experience around that.

"Is that a re-creation of the Super League or something equivalent? I don't know but I suspect the answer to that will be yes. We need to do something.

"We need to make sure one-day cricket continues to have a following. It's running the risk at the moment of having a lot of irrelevancy in terms of the bilateral arrangements that are made."

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