Petition not to have only 10 teams in 2010 World Cup

[crussher]

*Note: I meant the 2015 and not 2010 in thread title*
Dear cricket lovers,

If you would like to voice your concern at the ICC's recommendation to reduce the 2010 Cup to just 10 teams, then please send this petition, the results of which will be delivered to the ICC on October 11. You might also like to read article below.


Taken from Cricketeurope.net:

"Cricket’s full members may want a ten-team World Cup from 2015 but this proposal is not supported by the fans, according to a poll conducted by the ICC on its own official website.

The poll was open to all and featured prominently on the front page of the website of the governing body for about 24 hours starting on Thursday September 16.

The polling question was clear: ‘How many teams do you think should be in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015?’

Four options were given:

16 teams
12 teams
10 teams
Other
By 3.00pm GMT 60% of voters were in favour of a 16-team World Cup in 2015. Only 15% wanted the number of countries cut back to ten and 14% were happy with a twelve-team competition.

At 11.00pm GMT the support for a 16-team World Cup in 2015 had risen to 73%. A mere 9% called for a ten-nation event. With the vote for 16 teams still running at well over 65%, the poll was pulled from the site on Friday morning.

Of course, polls don’t mean everything, as any politician will tell you. Nevertheless, one that is conducted by the ICC on its own official website needs to be taken very seriously.

Most certainly it has become quite clear that a large number of cricket followers want to see the top six emerging nations compete at the 2015 World Cup. Fans can rest assured that those top six will have earned their place on the big stage. The qualifying process has until now involved nearly all 95 Associate and Affiliate members and has been rigorous and highly competitive.

When the ICC development program really swung into action at around the time of the 2001 ICC Trophy there were fewer than 100,000 players in the non-full member nations. Now there are around 500,000. The growth of the sport has been phenomenal.

The rise of the emerging nations has been particularly noticeable since 2007.

Since that time Ireland have reached the super eight stage of a World Cup. The Netherlands defeated Bangladesh and a Zimbabwe XI and has burst into the main ODI table alongside the Irish, Kenya and the ten Full members. Scotland produced a stunning come-from-behind victory against a very strong India A combination. Afghanistan’s amazing climb up the ladder has been an inspiration. Papua New Guinea’s Raymond Haoda was the leading wicket taker at the 2010 Under-19 World Cup beating off a field that included Australia’s rising stars Alister McDermott and Josh Hazlewood.

It should be noted that these feats were achieved in the 50-over format, not in Twenty20.

The Associates and Affiliates don’t want to be restricted to the T20 version of the sport. It’s important that players are exposed to different formats as they strive to excel. It is impossible to imagine a wonderful all-format batsman like Sachin Tendulkar being produced in a T20-only environment.

Clearly this is not the time to be discouraging new countries from playing the sport.

Consider what New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori had to say about the World Cup in an interview on the ICC’s official website: ‘I think it's most cricketers’ dream to play in the World Cup … For the New Zealand team to win the World Cup would be the ultimate achievement.’

Surely all players, no matter where they happen to be born, deserve a fair and achievable pathway to the ICC’s ultimate ‘global’ event?

Players, volunteers, coaches, fans and sponsors in the new markets need incentives. Seeing their country play at a World Cup is a great incentive to keep working hard, to keep coaching and or to umpire, play or score.

Cricket can ill afford to lose such valuable contributors to other sports such as baseball, rugby and basketball, but this is likely to happen in the Associate and Affiliate countries if the World Cup dream is taken away.

Moreover, cricket is fast gaining a reputation for being the greedy game. Too often now the full members seem solely intent on counting the cash instead of providing a stable base for the sport to prosper.

A 16-team World Cup is the perfect balance between incentive, quality, growth and stability. Four groups of four. Quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. It’s simple, short and every game counts, and it would seem to be what the ICC's loyal fans really want."

[Neel Here]

there are 14 teams in 2011 WC and there is no WC in 2010 unless you consider the T20 one.
you might want to edit the petition accordingly.

I do support the 4 teams in 4 groups format for the 2015 WC though. although even 12 teams in 4 groups of 3 won't be a bad idea.