ICC Executive Board meeting started in Dubai

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Executive Board will hold the second of its scheduled 2012 meetings in Dubai, started on 15 April.

The major topics on the agenda are:
In April 2011, the ICC had adopted a new strategic plan which identified the need for an independent governance review as one of its key strategic initiatives to ‘build a bigger, better global game’.
In August 2011, after confirming the scope for the review, the ICC Board appointed Lord Woolf of Barnes and PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct the review.
 Following extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, Lord Woolf and PwC presented at the last ICC Board meeting their 60 page report which contains 65 recommendations. The Board had agreed to study the report at this April meeting

ICC Logo

 The report highlights four fundamental issues:
 1. Ensuring good governance – an effective Board that provides strong leadership.
 2. Ethical standards – essential for ICC to embed the highest ethical standards with Members expected to adopt similar standards.
 3. The reform of Members’ rights – particularly removing the obligation to play Test cricket.
 4. Increasing the resources of the ICC – a self-funded ICC that distributes surplus revenue on a needs basis in its role to promote and develop international cricket across all Members.
 The recommendations are summarised into five main areas:
Role of the ICC

· The ICC Board

· Ethics

· Membership, Board structure and Committees

· Funding
 ICC Vice-President (2012-2014) nomination
The ICC has received the joint nomination of Mustafa Kamal from the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as the next ICC Vice-President and who will succeed Mr Alan Isaac as the ICC President in 2014.

Following a Board resolution to change the constitution to split the role of ICC President and Chairman of the Board, this nomination is yet to be considered by the Board.
 The Board will also receive an update on progress made to replace Haroon Lorgat who vacates the position of Chief Executive at the end of the Annual Conference in June 2012. The executive recruitment firm, Egon Zehnder International, is presently conducting a search for a suitable candidate.
Twenty20 strategy and other CEC recommendations for Board consideration
 Following constructive discussions at the March meeting of the Chief Executive’s Committee (CEC), the ICC Board will also discuss and contribute towards enhancing the strategy for Twenty20 cricket in developing the game and managing volume.
The CEC has recommended that the ICC World T20 should remain a joint men’s and women’s event and should be increased to 16 men’s teams from 2014 onwards.
 In addition, CEC also recommended that -

· the maximum number of T20s allowed in the year in which the ICC World Twenty20 is played should be increased by three (twelve to fifteen per Full Member);
Associate and Affiliate Members should consider submitting a proposal to stage an ICC WT20 event in a key developing market;
the current ranking systems be retained in their current form and are fit for the purposes of qualification to ICC events and promotion/relegation;
a preliminary/high level independent evaluation of participation in multi-sport events be undertaken and that the invitation to take part in the Commonwealth Games to be held on the Gold Coast in Australia in April 2018 be explored;
a framework for the recognition of various types of disability cricket be developed.

Schedule of ICC events 2015 to 2023

The ICC has already commenced with planning for the new rights cycle post 2015 and a key prerequisite of this is to determine the ICC events that will be staged. The Board will consider the events to be hosted in this new rights cycle.

Other agenda items include update reports on the implementation of Anti-Corruption Codes at domestic level; the ICC World Test Championship and the promotion of all three formats of international cricket; the ICC Development Programme Strategy, which was supported by the CEC at its last meeting; and approval of the ICC’s audited Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2011.

The ICC Board consists of the president or chairman from each of the 10 Full Members plus three Associate Member representatives. Also present at ICC Board meetings is the ICC President, who chairs proceedings, the ICC Chief

Executive and the ICC Vice-President, as well as by invitation, the ICC Principal Advisor.

Sharad Pawar ICC President

Alan Isaac ICC Vice-President

Haroon Lorgat ICC Chief Executive

Zaka Ashraf Pakistan

Dr Willie Basson South Africa

Peter Chingoka Zimbabwe

Giles Clarke England and Wales

Wally Edwards Australia

Dr Julian Hunte West Indies

Mustafa Kamal Bangladesh

Imran Khwaja Associate Member Representative

Nuski Mohamed Sri Lanka (alternate for Upali Dharmadasa)

Chris Moller New Zealand
Keith Oliver Associate Member Representative

Neil Speight Associate Member Representative

Narayanaswami Srinivasan India