The "silly points"

In the backwaters of global cricket, out of the view and generally out of the comprehension of majority of cricket followers, the path to the 2011 Cricket World cup in the Subcontinent begins in earnest.

Division five of the World Cricket league, will see 12 nations compete in a week long tournament from whence the top two teams will be promoted to the World Group Division four competition which will take place in Tanzania later this year and the system of promotion will continue until the top four teams in Division two join the top two teams in division three and the six current ODI playing Associates in the ICC World Cup qualifier in UAE in 2009 to determine which 4 Associates will be joining the 10 full members of global cricket at the World Cup in 2011.

12 cricketing nations, Afghanistan, Germany, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, USA, Vanuatu, Botswana, Japan, Jersey, Bahamas and Singapore, will gather in USA to compete in the fifth division of one of ICC’s World Cricket League. The 12 nations will be separated into groups of 6 in the first round which will be a round robin stage, from which the top two teams will then proceed to the semifinals and then on to the finals.

In the grand scheme of things though none of these teams are likely to make it to the World Cup, the tournament does represent a real effort by the ICC to get teams as far down as this level playing cricket on a regular basis against opposition of similar quality and a defined path to grow into better and stronger teams in the 50 over format of the game.