Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq favoured more international exposure for emerging cricket nations while expressing reservations on the format of 2006 Champions Trophy.
"I think the emerging nations deserve more exposure so that they can narrow the gap between the top teams. But I fear that with the format of the 2006 Champions Trophy, that gap will be widened," Inzamam said on Friday.
The ICC announced earlier this week that next year's Champions Trophy, to be staged in India, would be contested by the top eight teams of the world.
The top six teams as on April 1, 2006, will get direct entry while the remaining four Test-playing teams will participate in a pre-tournament qualifier and the top two sides will complete the fray.
"The 2007 World Cup will be competed by 16 teams. I think we should provide maximum opportunity (before the event in the West Indies) to the younger teams so that they can have a feel of international and top grade cricket.
"I think by restricting the Champions Trophy to eight teams, we are probably denying among others Bangladesh and Zimbabwe the right to prepare themselves for the World Cup," Inzamam said.
Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are currently ranked ninth and 10th in ICC rankings and barring a miracle, they are unlikely to make huge improvements in their rankings by April 1, 2006 cut-off date.
On present form, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the two likely teams to miss out from the mini-World Cup.
The World Cups have witnessed major upsets, including Zimbabwe's win over Australia in 1983, Kenya's victory over the West Indies in 1996, Bangladesh's victory over Pakistan in 1999 and lastly, Kenya's win over Sri Lanka in 2003.
It is worth-mentioning that the formats of the 2002 and 2004 Champions Trophy, in which 12 teams participated, was widely criticised as the cricket pundits complained of one-sided games which, according to them, was bad publicity for the game.
Inzamam, whose 17 out of 21 centuries have won Tests for Pakistan, said the substitution and field restriction rules sounded interesting and would be a challenge for captains.
"These are interesting changes but they would certainly not be easy for the captains. It would require more concentration and calculation. But I think it would definitely help the teams who have good bench strength.
"I think the captains are already over-worked and now it means that they will have to do more over-time. Cricket is getting tougher for captains but interesting as well," Inzamam said.
The ICC last week allowed teams to replace a player at any stage of a match. The replaced player will be ruled out of the rest of the game while the replacement will be allowed to assume any remaining batting or bowling duties. Both the original player and the substitute will earn caps for the match.
Currently, fielding sides are also allowed just two players in the deep for the first 15 overs. Those rules will now apply for the first 10 overs but must also be reintroduced for 10 more overs during the innings, in two blocks of five, at the fielding captain's discretion.
