The ICC Board held its second quarterly meeting of 2015 at the ICC Headquarters in Dubai on 16 April. Among the decisions made and reports received were:
ICC Chief Executive David Richardson will a task force to assess cricket in the USA.
Cricket in the USA
Following a report on recent correspondence and discussions between the ICC and the USA Cricket Association (USACA), the ICC Board decided that it was not satisfied that USACA is compliant with all of its obligations under the ICC membership criteria and constitution.
It was decided that there was a significant amount of further work that needed to be carried out in order to complete a full and proper assessment. In support of this, a Task Force headed by the ICC Chief Executive David Richardson will travel to the USA to meet relevant stakeholders in USA cricket in order to prepare a comprehensive report for further consideration by the ICC Executive Committee and ICC Board at its next meeting.
ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
Hosts Australia and New Zealand were congratulated on their successful staging of an event described by the ICC Chairman, Mr. Narayanaswami Srinivasan as the ‘most popular in history’.
The ICC CWC 2015 set a new attendance record of 1.1 million spectators with 10 matches attended by crowds in excess of 40,000 and over 94,000 people attending the final.
It was broadcast by 44 licensees in seven languages across 220 territories and covered in the host countries by 1,210 rights holding media and 1385 non-rights holding media.
The event website attracted 36.1 million unique visitors accumulating 304 million page views and the official app attracted 4.51 million downloads, making it the number one ranked sports app in 48 countries.
Mr. Srinivasan also thanked the ICC staff, Match Officials, Local Organizing Committee and all of the participating teams for their contributions to the event and congratulated Australia on its victory.
A more detailed report on all aspects of the ICC Cricket World Cup will be considered at the next ICC Board meeting in June.
Sri Lanka Cricket
The ICC Board considered the implications of the appointment of an Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) by the Government of Sri Lanka and whether this may be a breach of the ICC’s constitution which requires free and fair elections for office-bearers within Member boards.
After considerable discussion, and without making a final decision on the matter, the ICC Board supported a recommendation of the ICC Governance Review Committee that it should write to the Sports Minister of Sri Lanka seeking a full and proper explanation of its intervention that prima facie puts SLC in breach of the ICC’s constitution.
ICC President
The Board accepted the resignation of former President Mr Mustafa Kamal, effective from 2 April and confirmed that no replacement would be appointed for the remaining weeks of Mr Kamal’s term.
The Full Council of the ICC will consider the appointment of Mr Najam Sethi as ICC President when it meets in Barbados at the end of June.
Illegal bowling actions
Revised procedures for dealing with bowlers reported with suspected illegal bowling actions were approved, including provisions that:
• shorten the turnaround time from a bowler being reported to the test results being announced (35 days reduced to 24 days); and
• enable the ICC to recognise suspensions from domestic competitions, as long as the bowler has been assessed by the Member using the ICC testing protocol at an ICC-accredited testing centre.
The revised procedures will take effect immediately.
Other matters
The Board meeting commenced with Mr Srinivasan noting the immense contribution to the global game of the former Australia captain and iconic commentator Richie Benaud who passed away earlier this month.
A new rankings system has been approved for women’s cricket, incorporating results in all three formats into a single rankings system.
Nepal has been approved as host of the ICC U-19 CWC Qualifier 2015, however, this approval is conditional on the ICC being satisfied with the Cricket Association of Nepal’s (CAN) administrative capacity to deliver the event successfully.
The Board ratified the appointment of the former United Nations and International Criminal Court investigator Peter Nicholson as the new independent ICC Ethics Officer.
The Board also received reports on anti-corruption and anti-doping and approved the 2014 accounts.
Throughout the course of the week’s meetings, the various committees considered the post-2015 strategy of the ICC and provided input into a draft that will be further considered in June.
