MUMBAI: The ICC and IDI Boards, under the newly appointed chairmanship of Narayanaswami Srinivasan, met yesterday during the ICC Annual Conference week in Melbourne. A number of decisions were made and various reports were presented.
The ICC Board noted the significant progress made on the Future Tours Programme (FTP) which has been extended through to 2023. They have expressed satisfaction that is certainty around long-term scheduling with balance between home and away matches for all 10 teams and the three formats. The ICC Board agreed with the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) recommendation that the Members must sign all bilateral agreements through to 2023 before the next ICC meeting, which will take place in October.
The ICC Board approved the composition of various sub-committees. David Cameron of West Indies and Najam Sethi of Pakistan have been elected to the five member ICC executive committee , which will be chaired by Wally Edwards and will also include Srinivasan and Giles Clarke, with ICC chief executive David Richardson as an ex-officio member.
Clarke will also chair the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA), which will include Edwards, Srinivasan, Nazmul Hassan of Bangladesh and Jayantha Dharmadasa of Sri Lanka with Richardson again as an ex-officio member.
On the other hand, the Governance Review Committee will be chaired by Martin Snedden and will include Peter Chingoka of Zimbabwe, Hassan of Bangladesh, Sanjay Patel of India and Imran Khawaja of Singapore with Srinivasan and Richardson as ex-officio members.
The ICC Development Committee has also been reconstituted to emphasise the importance of developing the game beyond its traditional boundaries.
The committee will be chaired by the ICC chairman and include the three associate member representatives of the ICC Board, the three associate member representatives on the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee and the Affiliate Members’ Global Representative. It will also include the Full Member Directors like Chingoka of Zimbabwe, Cameron of West Indies and Snedden of New Zealand as well as Richardson and ICC Head of Global Development Tim Anderson, both ex-officio members.
The ICC Board agreed to give T20I status to the Netherlands and Nepal, both of which qualified for the ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014. This means there are now eight associate sides with T20I status. The other six are Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Scotland, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) which already have T20I status by virtue of having ODI status.
The ICC Board also noted with concern about the number of bowlers with suspected illegal bowling actions currently playing cricket and noted the recommendations of the ICC Cricket Committee and the CEC to revise processes to encourage umpires and referees to identify suspect bowlers with greater confidence, to use the expertise of the bio-mechanics working in this area to assume a greater role during the assessment process, and to allow for ongoing scrutiny of bowlers once they have been identified under the ICC procedures. The ICC Board will receive a further update at its next meeting.
It also concurred with the view that international venues must be set up to their maximum possible boundary dimensions, as per the playing conditions, to help maintain an appropriate balance between bat and the ball.
The ICC Board noted a number of other changes approved by the CEC, which met on Tuesday. The major changes to the ICC playing conditions for international cricket will come into effect from 1 October 2014.
The ICC Board received the annual anti-corruption report from Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the anti-corruption and security unit chairman, who repeated the need for the ICC to maintain its vigilance in the area of anti-corruption and also sustain the current high levels of education and strategy of prevention.
The ICC Board discussed and agreed on the terms of reference for a review of cricket’s anti-corruption processes and resources at both international and domestic level. The review group, which is aimed at improving the structures and resources, will be chaired by ICC chief executive David Richardson and will also include ECB chief executive David Collier, BCCI representative Sundar Raman, James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia Chief Executive, and an independent expert.
The ICC Board also received an update on the encouraging progress in preparation and ticket sales for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which will be staged in Australia and New Zealand from 14 February. New Zealand and Sri Lanka will feature in the opening match in Christchurch, while on the same day Australia will host England in Melbourne, which will also stage the final on 29 March.
On Thursday, the ICC Board had confirmed that the USA Cricket Association (USACA) was the ICC’s recognised member in the USA and approved the Development Committee’s recommendation that Oman Cricket (OC) should become the 38th Associate Member of the ICC. It also confirmed the suspension of the Affiliate Membership of Brunei and removal of Tonga as an Affiliate Member.
