William Porterfield, the man who lead Ireland to their famous World Cup wins against England (2011) and West Indies (2015) and was also a part of their victory against Pakistan in ICC World Cup 2007, has insisted that his side belongs among the world’s elite and said he despises being called as an ‘Associate’ nation.
Porterfield said:
“I don`t like that tag of Associates.
“I don`t think teams should be associated any differently, and putting those tags on us.
“As far as I`m concerned, there is a ranking system in place and that`s where we`re at.”
The non-test playing nations, however, could miss out on the ICC World Cup 2019 with the ICC planning to reduce the number of participating teams from 14 at the ongoing event to just 10.
“Hopefully the ICC will take notice and will start looking at the next World Cup,” said Porterfield.
“Obviously, cutting teams in the World Cup isn`t the way forward unless that`s the vision for the game.
“If you want to progress your game and grow the game of cricket, then cutting teams in world competitions isn`t the way forward.”
Regardless of his fears for future ICC tournaments, Porterfield is relishing the tantalizing prospect of making the last eight of this World Cup. Ireland have won three of their four matches played till now and are just one point behind from securing a quarter-final spot.
“Yeah, it`s a nice position to be in,” he said. “We want to be in the quarter-finals, we set ourselves this goal before we came here but it doesn`t count for anything if we don`t keep getting good performances and good starts to the game,” Porterfield added.