The case of the shrinking horizons

For the 96 members of the ICC beyond the Test world, the most significant event of 2014 came not on the pitch but in the boardrooms of Dubai. It was here, in November, that the ICC ratified the decision to reduce the 2019 World Cup to ten teams, making cricket the only sport in the world to contract the size of its flagship world event. As the ICC privately accepted, the rationale began and ended with the need to guarantee India nine matches.

For Associate and Affiliate nations, it continued a trend of reduced opportunities. It was true that 2014 saw the announcement of the new Test Challenge, giving the winner of the next Intercontinental Cup the chance to play against the lowest-ranked Test member in 2018 for the right to Test status. Still, there was a feeling that what Giles Clarke called a "glittering prize" (though the details, including whether the Associate will get regular Test matches if they won, are still unclear) concealed wider problems facing the game.

At the start of the year, the Big Three's takeover of the ICC was partly sold on the premise that it would result in more funds for leading Associates. While the very best are likely to receive more from the ICC, scrutiny of the sums revealed less altruistic motives.

If the new set of ICC rights amounts to $2.5 billion over eight years (as is possible when sponsorship is included), the total amount given to Associates and Affiliates will be $210 million. Had the rights gone for the same amount under the old formula, they would have received $425 million: the proportion of revenue given to non-Test countries has halved. The lowest-ranked 85 nations will be almost $200 million worse off than they would under the existing funding model.

The effects can already be seen in the scrapping of World Cricket League Divisions seven and eight, and a reduction in the number of teams invited to play in regional and youth tournaments. In August it was announced that the Asian Cricket Council was to be downsized as part of the Big Three's drive to cut costs - even though, in producing four of the six qualifiers for the World T20 tournament, the ACC had arguably done more than any other body to expand cricket's reach. This year Malaysia beat an Afghanistan side ranked 18 places above them, while a South Korea side made up of professional baseball players performed credibly at the Asian Games.

The year reinforced fears that for even the best teams beyond the Test world, playing opportunities against Full Members are diminishing. From 2016 the World T20 will be every four years rather than every two. The new two-stage 16-team format, first used this year, makes it harder for Associates to get the chance to play the leading eight countries.

The most fundamental problem facing the Associates remained the reluctance of Test teams, even the weakest, to play them, reducing the sums they could raise from sponsors and making it harder to prevent leading players from defecting. Between the 2007 and 2011 World Cups, Ireland had 17 scheduled ODIs against Test teams, but despite Ireland's improved performance, this fell to a derisory 11 between the 2011 and 2015 World Cups.

A paucity of fixtures contributed to an underwhelming year for Ireland. While they won two of their five matches against Full members - T20s against West Indies in the Caribbean and then Zimbabwe in the World T20 - their year came to be defined by the remarkable Dutch onslaught in the World T20.

After May, Ireland did not play a single game against a Full Member, and the acclimatisation tour of Australia and New Zealand descended into farce - by the end of the "tour from hell", Ireland were missing virtually an entire XI.

Still, county cricket provided better news for Ireland: 2014 was the most successful year their cricketers have ever had in England. Five Irishmen (including Eoin Morgan) captained counties at some point in the summer, and Ireland's probable top five in the World Cup averaged a combined 47 in English first-class cricket.

Even as he turned 36, Ed Joyce was playing better than ever: he scored eight centuries at a first-class average of 68.22 for Sussex. Meanwhile Gary Wilson earned acclaim after standing in for Graeme Smith as Surrey captain, Paul Stirling belatedly broke into Middlesex's first-class team, Tim Murtagh took 58 Championship wickets, and William Porterfield's unbeaten 47-ball 81 took Warwickshire into the T20 final.

More important was the emergence of new talent. Since the retirement of Trent Johnston and the defection of Boyd Rankin (who rejected Ireland's overtures to return for the World Cup) to England, pace bowling has been Ireland's weak point. The performances of Craig Young, quick and able to generate a fierce bouncer, went some way towards filling that void. He took five wickets on ODI debut, against Scotland, and in Australia and New Zealand suggested that he had the tools to be an asset in the World Cup.

So too did Peter Chase, who has similar attributes to Young. He took 11 wickets at 15.73 in his first three Championship games for Durham to force his way into Ireland's World Cup thinking. It was particularly encouraging for Ireland that both bowlers had been nurtured in Ireland and had Cricket Ireland contracts.

While Ireland's need for reinforcements was less pressing in the batting department, the final months of the year hinted at a new generation breaking through. Andy Balbirnie, a technically correct player with a Middlesex contract, scored three fifties in the last four innings of the acclimatisation tour, and then thumped 129 from 96 balls against a strong New Zealand A side to confirm the good impression. Meanwhile Nick Larkin, who made his Ireland debut against Sri Lanka A, hit a century for New South Wales.

The most heartening batting performance of the year, though, was reserved for a veteran of the last two World Cups. The day after admitting the extent of his struggle with depression, John Mooney made a sublime 96 against Scotland.

For Scotland it has been a sobering decade watching Ireland's ascent, so the side's reinvigoration in 2014 felt long overdue. After losing their opening game in the World Cup qualifiers, a magnificent seven-game winning streak salvaged Scotland's place in the World Cup. Fittingly, Preston Mommsen top-scored with 139 not out in the final, against UAE.

Mommsen led the side enterprisingly in the absence of Kyle Coetzer, and ended the year confirmed as Scotland's captain for the World Cup - and named the ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year to boot. Coetzer appeared liberated without the captaincy, hitting 333 runs at 55.50 apiece on the World Cup acclimatisation tour, the highest tally from any nation.

The two underpinned Scotland's batting, which was clearly established as their strong suit. In a one-day match against a strong New Zealand XI, Matt Machan, a powerful left-hander who enjoyed an encouraging county season for Sussex, hit 83 as Scotland fell just one run short of the hosts' 263 all out. But their most exciting batsman was Calum MacLeod, an audacious opener who hit four centuries for Scotland in 2014.

Paul Collingwood, who coached Scotland in the World Cup qualifiers and is now plotting a victory against England in the main event, was so impressed that he took MacLeod to Durham. Collingwood has spoken about instilling new belief in the squad, and when Roddy Smith stepped down after a decade as chief executive, the sense was that a dynamic replacement had the opportunity to make Scotland into the "new Ireland". Much could be learned about the way in which Ireland marketed their marquee home fixtures and organised a multi-day domestic competition.

Afghanistan have for a while been the most intoxicating tale beyond the cricketing elite, and that continued in 2014. They won three of their eight ODIs against Full Members, beating Bangladesh in the Asia Cup and then winning the last two ODIs in Zimbabwe to tie the series 2-2.

Their ambition was palpable: in October, Afghanistan's regional competition became a four-day affair, which is something that cannot even be said of Sri Lanka. Exciting new talent kept emerging. The opener Usman Ghani began the year in the Afghanistan Under-19 team that defeated Australia and Sri Lanka in the U-19 World Cup, and scored an ODI century against Zimbabwe as a 17-year-old. He added another against an Auckland team that included Kyle Mills and Mitchell McClenaghan during the World Cup acclimatisation tour.

After being thrashed twice by Western Australia, Afghanistan responded well to win four of their last six games, showing signs that they could adapt. Still, Afghanistan's propensity to implode remained. Their World T20 began with Mohammad Shazhad being dismissed off an ungainly heave to the very first ball against Bangladesh. Afghanistan promptly collapsed for 72 all out. Shazhad, renowned for his helicopter shot and likeness to MS Dhoni, was dropped soon afterwards, the selectors having tired of his inconsistency.

Afghanistan's year ended bleakly, as they were beaten 3-1 by UAE in an ODI series. But the sight of Hamid Hassan, who spent most of the year injured, taking 5 for 45 in the team's final game of the year was uplifting. With a varied bowling attack - including genuine pace, a left-arm quick and both off- and legspin - and an explosive batting line up, Afghanistan certainly have the ability to overcome Test sides at the World Cup. But Andy Moles, who replaced Kabir Khan as coach in September, has to instil greater consistency.

As they showed in their victory against Afghanistan, UAE were probably the most improved Associate in 2014. Unlike the other three qualifiers for the World Cup, they remain an essentially amateur operation, but that did not prevent them from making commendable strides. Captain Khurram Khan, a flight purser by day, embodied their spirit. He top-scored in the World Cup Qualifiers at the start of the year - and ended it by becoming, at 43 years and 162 days, the oldest centurion in ODI cricket.

Although they will not be joining UAE in the World Cup, Papua New Guinea may have been the most heartwarming Associate tale of the year. They gained ODI status in January, and in November became the first side to win their first two ODIs when they beat Hong Kong 2-0 in a series in Australia. Both games were televised, enabling the strokeplay of Lega Siaka, a belligerent opener who earned a Big Bash contract with the Melbourne Renegades, to be enjoyed around the world.

A heartening development this year was the increase in the number of matches streamed live online. Continuing this trend will be integral to the future of Associate cricket. If the Big Three are to be persuaded to advocate expansionism it will be driven by recognition that doing so could ultimately make them wealthier.

With this in mind, there was some encouragement from the United States. The American Cricket Federation organised a successful domestic tournament to press their case to replace the United States of America Cricket Association as the country's national governing body for cricket.

Cricket seemed insignificant set against the political turmoil in Hong Kong, but the side defeated Bangladesh in the World T20 - their first ever victory against a Full Member. The team also gained ODI status, and after West Indies pulled out of their tour of India, the prospect of Hong Kong replacing them in the World Cup was briefly mooted. Hong Kong's year ended when their series against Nepal, played in Sri Lanka, was ruined by the monsoon: they secured a two-wicket win in the only game possible.

For Nepal, despite beating Afghanistan and Hong Kong in the World T20, it was a disappointing year: they came ninth in the World Cup Qualifiers.

Netherlands were also great losers from that event. A remarkable chase by Kenya, who chased down 266 at 7.45 an over to knock them out, threatened the future of Dutch cricket. Coming after defeat to Namibia, it meant that Netherlands not only missed out on the World Cup but also lost ODI status for four years and lost 50% of Higher Performance Programme money. It was hard to argue with Peter Borren when he said: "To have all of that fall apart from under us in one afternoon, I see that as a poor investment from the ICC."

Still, Netherlands did not dwell on the defeat for long. In chasing 190 against Ireland in 13.5 overs to qualify for the second stage of the World T20, they produced one of the most intoxicating displays in any international cricket in the entire year. The South Australia batsman Tom Cooper, who was brought into the squad after becoming available (even though the man he replaced, Tim Gruijters, said that he was not injured in the way that Netherlands said he was), thumped six sixes in an astonishing 15-ball 45. Netherlands then agonisingly squandered a position of dominance against South Africa, but crushed England in their final game to suggest that Dutch cricket should not be forgotten - and, perhaps, to highlight the ICC's arbitrary decision to limit ODI status to 14 teams.

As for Kenya, who also lost their ODI status, the World Cricket League Division Two event in January loomed as a critical juncture in Dutch cricket. For Kenya, January brought to an end 18 proud years of holding ODI status. In many ways it was no surprise: Kenya's cricket infrastructure has collapsed over the past 15 years, and so slight is their talent pool now that, even at 42, Steve Tikolo was among their best players. He has now retired, for a second time and for good, and is Kenya's coach. But by the end of the year there was some cause for hope in Kenyan cricket. They won the Africa Cricket Cup, against Uganda, Tanzania, Namibia and invitational sides from South Africa and Zimbabwe. There was encouraging talk that the 50-over competition - which was disappointingly not awarded List A status - would be made an annual event, helping African Associates play more quality cricket and increase sponsorship opportunities.

Kenya's year ended with them touring Pakistan for a series of five televised one-day matches (curiously, 45 overs apiece) against Pakistan A, although a weakened Kenyan side performed abjectly. Pakistan, perhaps because they have experience of being ostracised, have established themselves as the Full Member manifestly most committed to growing the game: their A side also played the UAE in five one-day matches, winning 3-2, and Afghanistan in a one-off T20, which Afghanistan won easily.

But the acute fear beyond the Test world was that other Full Members did not share the view. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe declined the ICC's offer to take part in a pre-World Cup ODI tournament with the four World Cup qualifiers, reportedly because they feared being defeated and losing ranking points.

It was clearer than ever that there needed to be steps taken to prevent cricket being choked beyond the Full Members - there was loose talk of a 12-team ODI league incorporating Afghanistan and Ireland, with promotion and relegation, but the details were predictably vague. When the ICC and the Big Three still espoused the wish to create "a bigger, better global game" few were convinced.