The ICC today announced the schedule for the World Cup Qualifier, which will be played in Zimbabwe in March. In the midst of this, they also announced how they will handle ODI status for associates now that Ireland and Afghanistan have been promoted to full members.

Rather than take the apparently logical (as much as status can be logical) position of continuing to have six associates with ODI status – thus making the World Cup Qualifier an ODI tournament – they have instead opted to put a cap on the overall number of teams with ODI status at 16, thus meaning that only four associates will have ODI status.

Adding to the confused nature of status at the tournament is that the Netherlands, who regained ODI status by winning the World Cricket League Championship, will not have ODI status at the qualifier, instead not gaining it until after the qualifier. In addition, as the UAE are currently in Division 2 of the World Cricket League, the number of teams with ODI status at the qualifier is either going to be 7 or 8 depending on whether the UAE qualify from that tournament, set for next month.

With four full members – including the West Indies – set to take part in the tournament, this World Cup Qualifier is likely to be the highest profile qualifier since the tournament began in 1979. This decision can only serve to confuse any fans following the tournament, who will not know whether certain performances count towards a player’s career record.

It’s not out of the question that a West Indian player could score a big double hundred only for it not to count because of the team he made it against. Likewise, someone like Vivian Kingma could put in a career-defining performance against the West Indies only to be told that it doesn’t really count, when if he did it in April it would.

Even if the ICC doesn’t want to give all six associates in the tournament ODI status, they could at least make their matches in the tournament ODIs, as happened at World Cups and Champions Trophy tournaments prior to the top six gaining ODI status from 2006. Whilst not ideal, that would at least be a sensible compromise.

As the teams with ODI status will retain it until the tournament is over, it is possible that – as with previous World T20 Qualifiers – one or more of the lower ranking play-offs for 7 th and 9 th place could be ODIs when not all Super Six games are. If anyone can come up with a rational explanation for this, I’d love to hear it.

After the conclusion of the tournament, the top three associates plus the Netherlands will gain ODI status. If a further associate happens to finish ahead of the Netherlands or the four full members then they won’t get ODI status, even though they’ve finished higher than teams that will.

Yet again, a chance to give a tournament a high profile has been wasted due to cricket’s obsession with protecting the record book and remaining beholden to 19th Century ideas like status. This is not the way to grow the game or promote the game. Treating certain teams and players as second-class citizens should not be how a sport behaves in the 21st century.