We have seen some really good performances from Hong Kong in Asia Cup 2018 who’s ODI status is removed by ICC. On one hand ICC talks about making cricket a global game and on other hand they do almost nothing for betterment of cricket among associate nations. To improve the cricket, ICC must take some steps like when a country among top 9 tours another country, they must play 1 or 2 games against associate as well as new full member countries which are nearby the country they are touring. These games should not consider as only practice games and should have the respective status (Test, ODI, T20) depending upon the team’s status they are playing against (Test, ODI, T20). Some suggestions are as follows:
| Tour of | Some games against |
| England | Ireland, Scotland, Netherland |
| India/ Shri Lanka/ Bangladesh | Afghanistan, Nepal |
| Pakistan | U.A.E. |
| New Zealand/ Australia | Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malesia |
| South Africa | Kenya, Zimbabwe |
| West Indies | Canada, Bermuda, USA |
Talking about World Cup 2018, there are only 10 teams participating in it and all are the full members of ICC. Even the teams like Zimbabwe and Ireland who have Test Status also not playing in the world cup. With only 10 playing, who can someone call this a World Cup? So, I tried to make a schedule which looks like a World Cup schedule which is as follows:
Considering at least 16 teams should play world cup, we can group them into 4 groups.
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| Team 1 | Team 2 | Team 3 | Team 4 |
| Team 5 | Team 6 | Team 7 | Team 8 |
| Team 9 | Team 10 | Team 11 | Team 12 |
| Team 13 | Team 14 | Team 15 | Team 16 |
Teams from each group will play one match against each other. Top 2 teams from each group will qualify for the next round.
| Group E (Top 2 teams from Group A & Group B) | Group F (Top 2 teams from Group C & Group D) |
| Team 1 | Team 3 |
| Team 2 | Team 4 |
| Team 5 | Team 7 |
| Team 6 | Team 8 |
Here also Teams from each group will play one match against each other. Top 2 teams from each group will qualify for the semi-final.
Semi-final 1: Team 1 v/s Team 4
Semi-final 2: Team 2 v/s Team 3
Third Place: Loosing team of Semi-Final 1 v/s loosing team of Semi-Final 2
Final: Winner of Semi-Final 1 v/s Winner of Semi-Final 2
In current schedule of ICC, it is planned to play total 48 matches with 10 teams. But in this schedule, we can play fewer matches i.e., 40 with more teams i.e., 16. Hope we will get to see this kind of world cup in 2023.
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