To be considered eligible for membership as a Full Member of the ICC, the Associate Member must satisfy the following membership criteria

Governance, administration and finance

Have in place a detailed governance system that

(i) is fit for purpose

(ii) includes, as a minimum (a) a detailed written constitution containing provisions covering membership, AGMs and voting rights, and (b) adequate integrity related rules and regulations covering anticorruption, anti-doping and ethics; and

(iii) is consistently applied; Have in place an executive, administrative and corporate structure which is fit for purpose and which will enable the Applicant to exercise all the duties and responsibilities placed on it by its constitution and to meet its strategic plan;

(iv) Provide fully audited accounts for the previous four (4) years which do not contain any ‘material’ qualification;

(v) Generate a minimum of 10% of its own total revenues, i.e. other than all forms of direct or indirect ICC funding, in each of the previous four (4) years; A debt/equity ratio of not more than 2:1 in each of the previous four (4) years ; and Positive current assets as against current liabilities in at least three (3) of the previous four (4) years.

Performance

Currently feature on the ICC’s official Men’s ODI rankings table; Have participated in at least three Men’s ICC Cricket World Cups and/or Men’s ICC T20 World Cups in the previous eight (8) years; Have registered victories over at least:

(a) one (1) Full Member team (who was ranked in the top ten of the official ICC Men’s ODI or T20I rankings (as applicable) at the time of relevant victory) in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, the ICC Men’s CWC Qualifier and/or the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup; and

(b) four (4) victories against two (2) or more Full Member teams (who were ranked in the top ten of the official ICC Men’s ODI or T20I rankings (as applicable) at the time of relevant victory) in Men’s bilateral ODI and/or T20I cricket; in both cases over the previous eight (8) years;

Have either (a) participated in at least one (1) ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup or ICC Women’s T20 World Cup over the previous four (4) years or (b) currently feature on the ICC’s official women’s ODI rankings table; and

Have participated in at least two (2) editions of the ICC Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup in the last eight (8) years.

Participation and Domestic Structures

Have in place domestic participation structures which include:

a. Men’s National 50-over tournament structures, which comprise at least three (3) teams, with List A status;

b. Men’s National 20-over tournament structures, which comprise at least three (3) teams, with List A Twenty20 status;

Have satisfactory junior men’s pathway structures in place; Have satisfactory women’s pathway structures in place;

Have a sustained and sufficient pool of players to support strong and consistent national level selection across the senior men’s, U19 men’s and women’s teams; and Have strong domestic participation levels in the sport and evidence of significant growth over the previous eight (8) years.

Infrastructure

Have access to at least two (2) Men’s ODI venues accredited by the ICC for Full Member matches; and Have appropriate venues and facilities to support and sustain the domestic tournament structures including those described in (d)(i) above.

Development Programme

Have implemented over the previous four (4) years a coordinated and developed general coaching and talent identification programme which has as its primary aim the increase of the level of awareness and enjoyment of cricket by participation of all ages; and Have implemented over the previous four (4) years a coordinated and developed programme to train coaches, umpires, curators and scorers.

However, we do feel that few other players could have made the cut in the final XI in places of Najibullah Zadran, Marlon Samuels and Boyd Rankin. While Super Sixes only had Scotland and UAE representing the Associates, it was in the group stage where some of the most memorable performances were dished out by Associate players during the first few weeks of the Qualifiers.

Taking into consideration, some of those performances, here’s our Associate XI for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers:

1) Kyle Coetzer (Scotland) – 276 runs in 7 matches @55.20 with 2 half-centuries

2) Tony Ura (Papua New Guinea) – 251 runs in 5 matches @50.20 with 1 century

3) Calum McLeod (Scotland) – 303 runs in 7 matches @50.50 with 1 century and 1 half-century

4) Safyaan Sharif (Scotland) – 17 wickets in 7 matches @13.94 average with 1 five wicket haul

5) Rameez Shahzad (United Arab Emirates) – 188 runs in 4 matches @62.66 with 1 century and 1 half-century

6) Mohammad Naveed (United Arab Emirates) – 14 wickets in 7 matches @24.64 average with 1 five wicket haul

7) Norman Vanua – 12th Man (Papua New Guinea) – 14 wickets in 6 matches @16.92 average with 2 four wicket hauls

8) Roelof van der Merwe (Netherlands) – 16 wickets in 6 matches @12.25 average with 3 four wicket hauls

9) Ehsan Khan (Hong Kong) – 15 wickets in 6 matches @14.66 average with 1 four wicket haul

10) Paras Khadka (Nepal) – 231 runs in 6 matches @38.50 with 2 half-centuries

11) Sandeep Lamichhane (Nepal) – 13 wickets in 6 matches @18.23 average with 1 four wicket haul

12) Rohan Mustafa (United Arab Emirates) – 198 runs in 7 matches @28.28 with 1 half-century and 13 wickets @22.76 average with 1 five wicket and 1 four wicket hauls

Currently, Associate countries UAE, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong have temporary ODI status based on their positions in the previous World Cup Qualifiers. Based on the previous arrangement and Netherlands being promoted to 13th spot for ODI League, the top 3 finishers among Associate nations in the 2019 ICC World Cup Qualifiers will be awarded temporary ODI status.

The move will be highly significant as it will mean that the 5 remaining Associate countries in the World Cup Qualifiers apart from bottom 4 full-members and Netherlands will be playing for the ODI status spots as well as trying to qualify for World Cup.

The schedule for World Cup Qualifiers will be released in Jan 2017, which will be played in Zimbabwe from Mar 2018.