Inter-insulars to play out on a global scale
FROM next year, inter-insular T20s could carry full international status and count towards each island’s global ranking.
A historic five-day ICC Annual Conference concluded in Dublin on Monday and the move to award all member men’s senior teams T20I status from 1 January 2019, following the cut-off point for qualification to the ICC World T20 2020, was ratified. (All women’s T20 matches between member nations already have international status.)
That means that, as long as they satisfy certain criteria such as properly qualified umpires and scorers officiating, T20 matches between Guernsey and Jersey – or any member nations such as regular visitors to the island such as the Netherlands and Denmark – can count as full internationals.
‘The intention would be that if we run T20 competitions, whether they be against Jersey or Denmark or whoever, they will be ranked as T20Is,’ said Guernsey Cricket Board chief executive Mark Latter, who attended the conference.
‘So the inter-insular could get T20I status and count towards international rankings.’
Although next month’s inter-insular clash, which will be played as a T20 tri-series rather than the traditional 50-over format to help both islands prepare for the ICC World T20 European Qualifier in the Netherlands a fortnight later, comes too soon to carry international status, Latter is keen that any such series from 2019 onwards will meet T20I criteria.
‘We would like to play a T20 inter-insular tri-series annually in the first part of the season, with the 50-over match run in its usual spot later in the year,’ he said.
‘The first publication of the [T20] rankings will be in May and will be mainly taken from historical tournament results, so it will probably take a year for them to settle down into an accurate list.
‘It will be a case of the higher-ranked team you beat, the quicker you move up the rankings.
‘Once they are bedded in, the rankings may well determine who plays who in ICC tournaments going forward.’
Latter believes that Guernsey having T20I ‘is a big step forward with the opportunities it affords’.
‘From a player’s perspective, it is way ahead of club cricket in the UK and more on a par with List-A cricket,’ he said.
‘It would attract people to the game with the opportunity it provides and the ability to be noted on the global stage in official rankings and statistics – for example, effectively Josh Butler will be ranked against Jos Buttler,’ he added, referencing Guernsey’s T20 captain and the England star.
