"To equate the performances here with those that have taken place between full member countries and calling them records is a joke"- Sunil Gavaskar
Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the records garnered from matches between Associate nations and called for them to be separated from international games featuring full-member countries. Several outliers in matches between slightly stronger Associate sides and the newly-formed ones have led to outlandish records.
In his column for the Mid Day, Gavaskar wrote:
"Sure, these games are played between countries and so are called internationals, but to equate the performances here with those that have taken place between full member countries and calling them records, is a joke."
"They can be called List A internationals or some such and their records be kept separate from those scored between full member countries and in World and Asia Cup games," he added.
Tournaments like the World Cup qualifiers often feature a couple of the full-member sides and several other lower-ranked associate nations. Several individual and team records take a beating in the clashes between the participating teams of these competitions.
"The Qualifiers simply cannot be on par with the internationals between full member countries" - Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar called for having a separate league featuring the associate nations with the numbers and records being specific to them and devoid of entering the international record books.
A case in point was seen last year when Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee scored a 10-ball 52 against Mongolia in the Asian Games. During the knock, he broke Yuvraj Singh's 12-ball record for the fastest T20I half-century, reaching the landmark in only nine deliveries.
"The Qualifiers simply cannot be on par with the internationals between full member countries. Someone much more intelligent than me can find a nomenclature for those games to differentiate it and the sooner it is done, the better for the game," Gavaskar wrote in the same column.
Airee also replicated Yuvraj's 2007 T20 World Cup heroics in the Mongolia clash by smashing six maximums in an over.
While there are only 12 full-member cricketing nations, as many as 96 Associate members exist with the sport becoming more global by the day.