Underdogs strike: Associate teams are setting the T20 stage on fire – Sport
In the shortest format of cricket, associate teams are proving that skill and determination can challenge the established order.
After Sri Lanka’s win against Ireland on Sunday night in Colombo, Ramiz Raja declared that a win is a win, whether it is against “minnows”, or the “big boys”.
The term “minnow”, in the cricketing context especially, refers to a smaller, ‘less serious’ opposition. Despite being a test-playing nation, Ireland tends to often be categorised under this moniker. However, the term is also heavily used to refer to associate cricketing nations – those teams that do not yet have permanent ICC membership or test-playing status.
While one could argue that Ramiz Raja meant well, his choice of words came across as patronising and dismissive of the effort associate nations put into cricket. The opening weekend of the ongoing T20 World Cup offered ample evidence to the contrary.
T20 opens with edge-of-seat contests
The opening days of the tournament featured games across venues in India and Sri Lanka. Notably, many of these games were closely contested — especially the opening weekend fixtures — with the matches ebbing and flowing, and rarely was one team distinctly ahead in the contest than the other.
The closest of these to home was of course the opening fixture between Pakistan and the Netherlands. While Pakistan was relatively comfortable in the chase, a spectacular middle-order collapse left the team reeling, requiring 29 runs off the final two overs. It was a penultimate-over cameo by Faheem Ashraf, complemented by a fortuitous dropped catch that got Pakistan over the line.
For all intents and purposes, the match should have been an easier one to win for Pakistan, with the team being just 2 wickets down when they needed 50 to win off the same number of balls.
However, Netherlands’ performance established a trend that developed in the games to follow: associate nations showing up as exceptionally competent, competitive sides, making the contests much different than the one-sided affairs the uninitiated might have expected.
It should also be noted that the Netherlands are hardly strangers to success at ICC tournaments. In 2022, they defeated South Africa (to the considerable benefit of Pakistan’s qualification scenarios) in a spectacular upset, and followed it up by an even more impressive win against the same opponent in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Later in the day, the USA put India under pressure in the powerplay, reducing them to 46 for four. A solid captain’s knock by Suryakumar Yadav ensured India ended up with a close-to-par score that the bowlers defended convincingly — but USA had done enough to prove that they are a side to be taken seriously in theT20 World Cup.
Perhaps the most convincing of these associate performances came when evening. The atmosphere at the Wankhede was electric as Nepal took on England on Sunday, the stands packed with hundreds of Nepal fans roaring their team on as they came agonisingly close to chasing down England’s 183. In the end, Nepal fell just four runs short, with England barely escaping jail — and only after being tested to the absolute limit.
On Monday morning, Italy faced Scotland in a historic first World Cup appearance for the European nation, having qualified for the tournament by finishing second in the 2025 Europe Qualifiers.
T20: Cricket’s great equaliser
While the scheduling of the T20 World Cups attracts its fair share of criticism — for being held every two years instead of four and for over-saturating the sport’s calendar — it is undeniable that the 20-team format is the closest cricket has come to a truly global tournament.
T20 cricket itself is often criticised for diluting the essence of the game: for being too fast-paced, for driving over-commercialisation, and for indirectly undermining international formats due to the financial pull of franchise leagues.
What is often overlooked, however, is that the brevity and volatility of the shortest format enable something the longer formats do not: they narrow the gap created by disparities in skill, resources, and financial strength between associate nations and established teams.
At times, Test and ODI cricket serve more as displays of endurance than of outright skill. Teams operating with limited financial and administrative resources often face corresponding limitations in infrastructure: inadequate cricketing grounds and wickets, insufficient equipment, and sparse training facilities. As a result, even associate cricketing nations with abundant talent may struggle to develop players into durable all-format cricketers.
Furthermore, the current ICC calendar is heavily oriented around full-member nations playing each other, with associate nations rarely getting the opportunity to face stronger opponents in bilateral series that could strengthen their game. The lack of consistent match practice and training resources can lead to the raw talent of these players diminishing over the extended durations of Tests or one-day matches.
T20 cricket, however, presents a different scenario. Played over just four hours, it allows associate nations to compete within a timeframe that lets them showcase their full strength, even against much stronger teams.
T20 cricket is also the most accessible format. Permanent Test and ODI status is reserved for full-member nations, and temporary ODI status is often contingent on performance and other criteria. For many associate nations, T20 cricket remains the primary format in which they can consistently participate.
As the T20 game has evolved, so too has the arsenal of format-specific skills available to players. This allows teams to concentrate their development on this particular format, fostering a clear understanding of player roles, management strategies, and tactical approaches tailored specifically to T20 cricket.
In the games played so far, the craft of associate spinners has been particularly noteworthy, with standout performances by Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee and the Netherlands’ Aryan Dutt against England and Pakistan serving as proof.
Add to this the increasingly fast-paced (and therefore precarious and volatile) nature of T20 cricket, and the possibilities multiply. While teams with greater time and structural investment naturally maintain an advantage, it is not as decisive as it would be in the longer formats.
This is also why many “upsets” in cricket occur during T20 matches. A shorter game allows unlikely winners to emerge by sustaining moments of brilliance and consistency long enough to tip the balance. Notable examples from recent years include the Netherlands defeating South Africa in 2022, the USA beating Pakistan in 2024, Namibia overcoming Sri Lanka in 2022, and Nepal winning 2-1 against the West Indies in a three-match series in 2025.
Cricket still has a long way to go before it becomes a truly global sport. The disparities in resources and decision-making autonomy remain stark — both within some full-member nations and, more dramatically, between them and associate nations. Some teams, like the Netherlands, have competed as associate nations for many years across multiple tournaments, often attracting criticism for stagnation.
An opponent is an opponent
However, through T20 cricket, especially world cups, associate nations are making a mark for themselves by producing powerful performances more consistently than they did in previous years.
Problems of materials and resources aside, what also needs to change in the broader cricketing fraternity is the way associate nations are talked about and approached as sporting entities.
Words like “minnows” and “small teams” diminishes the spirit and skill that these teams show up with to compete against opponents who have an advantage of decades and millions in front of them.
On paper, fans of established teams might rightly expect their sides to win. But there needs to be a breakdown in the sense of shame created around losing, or almost losing, to associate teams. Recognising and awarding merit to their successes, viewing them as genuine victories rather than mere “upsets,” would be a crucial step toward granting associate nations the legitimacy they deserve as serious competitors rather than formalities.
An opponent is an opponent is an opponent. An cricket is so close to understanding why.
