The International Cricket Council board, which met in Dubai following New Zealand’s victory in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, has recommended to change the term of the ICC chair and independent director to two terms of three years.
The decision gains significance as Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Jay Shah, son of the powerful Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, is the ICC chairman designate and will begin his term effective December 1. Considering how the BCCI pretty much runs world cricket due to the financial muscle India brings to the global cricket table, it can be taken as a given that Jay Shah, if he so chooses, will more than likely be running cricket’s world governing body for the next six years.
The other changes the ICC board approved at its meeting are detailed below:
Women’s cricket
The ICC board approved a series of women’s Associate Member (AM) T20 competitions to boost the competitiveness of AM teams in preparation for the expansion of ICC women’s events in the 2028-2031 cycle.
The strategy includes the creation of two annual T20 International tournaments between 2025 and 2028 which would offer structured cricket with context to 24 teams in the pathway ahead of the 16-team ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2030, with further details to be announced in due course.
The ICC board also approved the 2025-2029 women’s FTP and calendar, this will be published in the coming days. It was also approved by the ICC chief executives’ committee (CEC) that the Women’s rankings annual update will now move to 1 May from 1 October of each year and teams will now need to have played a minimum of eight matches from six, due to the significant increase in women’s international cricket.
The (CEC) also confirmed the mechanism for ODI status for the five Associate Member women’s teams of the 16 for the 2025-2029 cycle. It will consist of a maximum of two AMs that qualify for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2025 with the remaining slots determined by the ICC T20I team rankings at the time of the annual update.
Governance
There were changes to the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee with Scott Weenink appointed as Full Member representative and Scott Edwards named as Associate Member representative. There has also been a change to the Medical Advisory Committee with the appointment of Dr John Maclean replacing Dr Roger Hawkes following his retirement.
