- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
SOURAV Ganguly, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has been appointed as the chair of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Cricket Committee after former India captain Anil Kumble stepped down after serving a maximum of three, three-year terms.
Greg Barclay, the chair of the ICC, said, “I am delighted to welcome Sourav to the position of Chair of the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee. His experience as one of the world’s best players and latterly as an administrator will help us shape our cricketing decisions moving forward.
“I would also like to thank Anil for his outstanding leadership over the last nine years which has included improving the international game through more regular and consistent application of DRS and a robust process for addressing suspect bowling actions.”
The council’s board also decided that first-class status and ‘List A’ classification will be applied to women’s cricket to align with the men’s game and applied retrospectively. Going forward, the ICC Women’s Committee will be known as the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee and will assume all decision-making responsibility for women’s cricket reporting directly to the chief executives’ committee (CEC).
Johnny Grave, the chief executive officer of Cricket West Indies, has been appointed to the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee.
Barclay also said, “This has been an extremely productive set of Board meetings and I’d like to thank my fellow Board Directors for their efforts in travelling to Dubai to enable us to enjoy our first face-to-face meeting in more than two years. International travel is not easy in COVID times, but we have achieved a significant amount by being in the same room.
“Finally, on behalf of the ICC Board, I’d like to thank the ICC staff for their continued commitment over the last two years. It hasn’t been a straightforward period and the challenges thrown at us by COVID have impacted how they have had to operate. They have responded with great energy and have consistently delivered to a high standard culminating with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 which has been a resounding success.”
Following the expansion of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to a 14-team event in the next cycle 2027, the board accepted a recommendation from the CEC that the primary avenue for qualification for the event be based on rankings at a pre-determined cut-off date with the 10 highest-ranked teams on the men’s one-day international rankings qualifying automatically and the remaining teams being determined through a global qualifier.
The board has also appointed a Working Group to review the status of the Afghanistan Cricket Board and cricket in Afghanistan in light of the recent change of the country’s government.
The group comprises Imran Khwaja (chair), Ross McCollum, Lawson Naidoo and Ramiz Raja and will report back to the board over the coming months.
