Some of world cricket's biggest names have given their backing to the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League and efforts to grow the sport around the world.

Stars including Nathan Bracken and Dale Steyn, who attended the LG ICC Awards in Dubai earlier this month, gave their support to the qualifying structure that will see the top four Associate and Affiliate teams join cricket's super powers at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

The Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 4, which begins in Dar Es Salaam on 4 October, will see six teams try and gain the two remaining qualifying spots for Division 3, with the top two sides at that tournament making it through to the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier where the leading four sides will make it to Asia for world cricket's showpiece event.

'I was sitting on the flight here and I was watching about the Afghanistan cricket team and they won Division 5 and now they're in Division 4 and their goal is they want to make the World Cup,' said Bracken, speaking at the LG ICC Awards, where he was shortlisted for the ODI Player of the Year Award.

'To see the pride that those guys had by winning Division 5, to make it to Division 4, was amazing.'

Dale Steyn, who won the Test Player of the Year Award, compared the efforts to grow the sport through the Pepsi ICC Development Program to his own experiences growing up in South Africa and admitted he was particularly touched by the story of Afghanistan's cricketers.

'I actually watched it on the plane and saw Jersey was playing against Afghanistan and it was great to see where these people are coming from and everything,' said Steyn.

'It takes me back to where I came from and what cricket was like when I was growing up.

'I'm actually stunned for words to think these people are actually playing now. Its great and I wish them the best. It will be fantastic to see them in a World Cup in 2011.

'You get this sense people want to be there, with their smile, whether they win or lose. It's just there because they enjoy cricket, they want to compete and they want to represent their country and that's fantastic.'