The ICC will discuss facilitating ODI status for certain Associates during its meetings in Dubai that start on Thursday
Tristan Lavalette06-Apr-2022With their Women’s World Cup dreams dashed after the qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe in November was abandoned midway because of the newly detected Omicron variant, dejected Thailand players cried.Their batter Natthakan Chantham shared the pain through a social media post after the team was unable to progress to the 2022 Women’s World Cup. The reason behind not qualifying was Thailand not having ODI status even though they had beaten Full Members Zimbabwe and Bangladesh before the qualifying event was aborted.”The players were so disappointed,” Cricket Association of Thailand president Ravi Sehgal told ESPNcricinfo. “We should have been given a fair chance to qualify. We couldn’t qualify for the World Cup because we don’t have an ODI ranking as we have never had ODI status.”We have worked very hard to get our standard to this point with entirely ethnic Thai players. But we still need help.”Sehgal petitioned the ICC and board directors in December with an impassioned plea for Thailand to be granted ODI status. He didn’t get his wish but the issue is broadly set to be discussed during ICC meetings that start in Dubai on Thursday.The ICC is looking at facilitating ODI status for certain Associates wanting to pursue the 50-over format and provide them with additional funding, while re-examining World Cup qualification pathways for Associates. Currently, being a Full Member or qualifying for the ICC Women’s Championship is the only way to get ODI status.Last year the governing body awarded Test and ODI status for women’s teams of Full Members, but Thailand don’t have that because of the stunted growth of their men’s team (although both Afghanistan’s men’s and women’s team were given Full Member status despite there not being a functional Afghanistan Women team as such).
“We have worked very hard to get our standard to this point with entirely ethnic Thai players. But we still need help”Ravi Sehgal, the Cricket Association of Thailand president
“Our men’s development isn’t at the mark of our women’s, so we have focused on women who have done exceptionally well,” Sehgal said. “The women’s team will be more confident with more international matches, especially if they have opportunities to regularly play against the top ten countries.”Additionally, there was also brief confusion over which matches had ODI status. In September 2018, the ICC said for the purposes of simplification, all matches in tournaments – such as World Cup qualifiers – where some teams have ODI status and some don’t will be considered ODIs.Thailand and USA celebrated their ODI status during those qualifiers only for it to emerge later the qualifier matches that involved a non-ODI-status team were to be categorised as “other one-dayers”.”This issue is important because Associates who deserve ODI status should have it and I think in principle it should have widespread support,” said Sumod Damodar, who is an Associate Member representative on the Chief Executives’ Committee. “What happened to Thailand was disappointing. Did Thailand merit better treatment? Yes. They beat two Full Members. They should at least be given special dispensation to get ODI status.”Thailand, who memorably lit up the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup, were at the top of Pool B of the qualifiers when the event was called off as the Omicron variant spread through southern Africa leading to border closures and travel restrictions.With the tournament unable to be rescheduled, the three highest-ranked teams in the ODI rankings progressed to the World Cup and the next two got a place in an expanded ten-team Women’s Championship.
pic.twitter.com/Xho22YBaYl
— Natthakan Chantham (@NatthakanJeans) November 27, 2021