ICC reduction of World Cup teams not justified

 REGULAR readers of this column will recall that I was endorsing the reduction of teams competing in the 2015 ICC World Cup to avoid a month of meaningless matches.
I would like to see some of the smaller teams involved although with the opportunity to apply pressure on their stronger opposition by having the chance to eliminate them in a knockout. In short, teams in a competition should be allowed to, well ... compete.
However, the ICC has made a farce of this by choosing to exclude any remote possibility of teams appearing by restricting entry to the 10 full members. This therefore excludes, most notably, Ireland, who have beaten Pakistan, Bangladesh and England, not to mention seeing batsman Kevin O'Brien score the fastest century in World Cup history.
I accept that the TV companies and sponsors want to see the top teams compete. However, surely a balance can be struck where the top six or eight teams qualify automatically while the remainder are forced into a play-off competition against the minnows.
This would also add more vibrancy to the one-day competitions between the top nations as they would be fearful of entering such a play-off and risk missing the chance of playing in the World Cup!