The International Cricket Council has confirmed that the next two Cricket World Cups will be 10-team events. 

This means that, despite a reasonable showing at the latest tournament, the Associate nations have been shut out from cricket’s premier tournament until at least 2019. 

After claims that the current format of the World Cup is too long, the ICC have stripped back the tournament to just the 10 full test-playing nations for the 2015 tournament–to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand. 

A glimmer of hope is that some nations will be able to qualify for 2019, giving the associate and affiliate members a pathway back to the World Cup.

However, the decision is likely to be a major setback in the development of cricket in the second tier of nations, just as signs of improvement were beginning to show. 

Barring a couple of Kenyan games, the Associate nations performed admirably at World Cup 2011. These nations have competed at World Cups regularly and the time invested in them was beginning to pay off. 

Unfortunately, this decision means it is now back to square one for the development of cricket as a truly international game. 

It is hard not to feel sorry for the Irish Cricket Association, and understandably they are outraged at the decision. What more does Ireland have to do to get formally recognised as a quality cricketing nation? 

Matthew Lewis/Getty Images

In the 2007 World Cup, they remarkably qualified for the Super 8 stage and since then have gone from strength to strength.

They are now nearly a fully professional outfit with several county players on their roster...and it showed how far they have come when they beat England in Bangalore a few weeks ago. 

Rubbing salt into the wound is the fact that Ireland are ranked 10th in One Day cricket...ahead of test-playing nation Zimbabwe. But no matter how well they perform in One Day cricket between now and the next tournament, they will not be a part of the World Cup. 

Ireland already has the problem of holding onto their players as they are lured away to England with the carrot of test cricket.

By taking away the World Cup from associates, they are left with just the T20 World Cup as an opportunity to play on the world stage.

The ICC says they have compensated the decision by making the T20 World Cup a 16-team competition. This appears as purely a money-making decision.

By having a few more teams in the commercially popular shortened format means the ICC can make a few more dollars. The 50-over World Cup is still widely regarded, by players at least, as cricket’s premier tournament. 

The decision is effectively saying that all non-test playing nations should go away and concentrate on 20-over cricket.