Ireland and Scotland play regularly and they have a higher fund allocation from the ICC. Ireland, being a full member receives somewhere around $18 million per year from the ICC, while Scotland being one of the top associates receive close to $1 million from the ICC (and another $500,000 or so from SportScotland). Teams like Italy and Germany have access to only a fraction of the funds in comparison. Still these two teams tried their best, by brining in players with county experience. Jersey also did well, with their local players.
Well, at least Ireland and Scotland are not playing with foreign players like players from India/Pakistan in the team. We can see a lot of teams absolutely made out of 9-11 foreign players. At least this is better than that. I think there should be a fund allocation system for the teams set. It will actually be great for the associate nations to get money based on performance. Because sometimes they will be able to beat teams which are bigger compared to them. Teams like Ireland and Scotland can actually be beaten by associate teams who are not very well known. So that can be a huge thing for them.
But remember giving money based on performance is not going to work in the top 10.