The International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive has predicted that the World Cup would be an open tournament, claiming that the associate members are well prepared to upset major teams in the elite cricket showdown.
Four second-tier nations -Afghanistan, Ireland, United Arab Emirates and Scotland- would join the 10 full members for the 11th edition of the World Cup, which runs in Australia and New Zealand from Feb. 14-March 29.
While Ireland stunned Pakistan and England at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups respectively, minnows Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh in their first win over a Test-playing nation last year, Stuff.co.nz reported.
The ICC arranged a familiarization tour of Australia for Afghanistan last year during which they played matches against local sides to gain much-needed experience of the conditions Down Under.
The governing body also appointed former Australian batsman Dav Whatmore, who coached Sri Lanka to their 1996 World Cup win, to help the four minnows prepare for the tournament in Australia and New Zealand.
ICC boss David Richardson said that the associates and the way they are prepared for the World Cup, any other country would be silly to take them lightly. He insisted that if the others do take them lightly, there's a real chance of an upset being caused.
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Richardson claimed that they would be the underdogs in most of the matches but a surprise or two can impact the group standings.
Richardson claimed that if the team is South Africa, they would want to make sure they finish top of the group because they would want to avoid a difficult quarterfinal. He added that any upset would have profound effect on the tournament.
The 14 teams have been divided into two groups for the World Cup with four teams from each pool advancing to the knock-out stages, the report added.
