London, April 11: Ireland cricket board is planning to challenge the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to bar the non-Test playing nations from participating in the 2015 World Cup.
According to a report in BBC, “Cricket Ireland (CI) is in high-level talks with the 94 other non-Test playing nations about challenging the decision to bar them from the 2015 World Cup.” The report said lawyers have contacted Cricket Ireland to suggest they should sue.
“I can assure you that we are not taking this lying down,” Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom was quoted as saying in the report.
“We have just moved out of the anger and indignation phase and we are now seriously examining our options.
“We have spent the last few days talking with the other emerging cricket nations to build a consensus among the 95 non-Test countries – more than 90 per cent of the ICC’s membership – and we are now at the point where we decide what we do.
“Everyone agrees we must challenge the decision but we must think about what any challenge would look like, who brings it, how much does it cost and what is the appropriate forum.
“I have received a number of e-mails from prominent sports lawyers who say the decision is imminently challengeable,” he added.
However, Deutrom insisted any formal move would not be led by Ireland but would be a “95-country challenge” by the ICC associate and affiliate members.
“After all, Ireland has not qualified for the next World Cup, we are just one of many countries looking for an opportunity to do so,” he said.
“And in all my years of working for or with the ICC I have never heard of an ICC decision that has been challenged. But I have also never heard of a decision that has caused so much global outrage,” he added.
He also said they can consider to approach an external body such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) only when all “internal options were exhausted”.
-Agencies