CRICKET:THE POSSIBILITY of Ireland taking part in the 2015 World Cup took a step forward yesterday after the first stage of the International Cricket Council's annual conference in Hong Kong.

The first two days were taken up with a meeting of the chief executives’ committee (CEC), which included Cricket Ireland’s Warren Deutrom, and they have put forward the recommendation that there should be a qualification process for the event.

That will now go forward to the ICC’s executive board, comprised of representatives of the Full Member countries, who will meet over the next two days, during which a final decision will be taken.

The executive board drew widespread criticism after deciding at a meeting in India in April to limit the 2015 event in Australia and New Zealand to just the 10 Full Member countries, effectively ostracising the other 95 members of the ICC. This year’s event comprised 14 teams.

The outcry, which included prominent present and former international cricketers, prompted ICC president Sharad Pawar to call for a review.

The ICC’s influential cricket committee, which included Ireland’s Trent Johnston, also voted in favour of a return to a qualification route to the event when they met in May.

An ICC statement issued yesterday read: “The CEC recommended that there should be a qualification process for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 but did not make a recommendation to the ICC executive board on the number of teams that should compete in the event.”

The World Cup is likely to remain as a 10-team event, with TV companies keener on a shorter tournament with the big sides such as India, England and Australia playing at least nine games in a round-robin system.

If they agree on a qualification tournament, it is likely to mean Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, the lowest ranked of the Full Members, would join the top six Associate nations in a battle for two places in the 2015 World Cup.

The two countries are likely to insist on a parachute payment that would involve receiving their participation fee for the event even if they failed to qualify, while they are also expected to have a say in where the qualifier will be staged. Scotland was originally set to stage the qualifying tournament.

The ICC, meanwhile, has directed that Cricket Ireland and Cricket Namibia come to “an amicable agreement” over the Intercontinental Cup clash that was due to be played in Belfast this week. The four-day game had to be postponed after the African side failed to receive visas.

In other news, former Ireland coach Adrian Birrell will return to Eastern Cape, whom he worked with before taking the Irish job, in a role as manager of coaching development.

And Ireland international Andrew Balbirnie won the man of the match award for an innings of 73 and also taking two wickets as Cardiff defeated Durham by 27 runs in the final of the MCC Universities competition at Lord’s yesterday.