The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to trim its annual meetings from four to three from next year. This decision was taken at its quarterly meeting in Singapore recently.
The BCCI Director on the ICC Board, Amitabh Choudhary, told The Hindu that two quarterly meetings held in the first half of a calendar year have been merged into one.
A meeting used to take place in early February and early April before the annual conference in June-July. Now, there will be just one meeting during late February before the annual conference.
Clearly, the directors believe that one meeting is enough during the six-month period before the annual conference.
The ICC, under Shashank Manohar — who was first elected independent chairman in 2016 and re-elected for a two-year period in June 2018 — has adopted path-breaking policy-matter decisions with regard to financial and governance structures.
It has done away with the executive powers that were given to the cricket boards of India, Australia and England in 2014.
Now, the ICC has a 17-member board with 12 full member nations, three associate member nations, an independent chairman and an independent female director in Indra Nooyi.
The ICC has also accepted the recommendations of the Cricket Committee, in particular, the player behaviour aspect and made changes in the ICC Code of Conduct.
On the matter of culture of international cricket, the ICC has urged cricket boards to “take greater responsibility” to conduct the game on and off the field. One of the points highlighted in a report is that match officials, touring teams and their officials are treated as guests in the host countries.
The ICC is now focused on planning a Global Strategy for Cricket, and has interacted with major stakeholders of the game after the annual conference in Dublin.
Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, made a presentation at the ICC’s conclave in Singapore. The strategy document is likely to be adopted at the next meeting in February 2019.
