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Exiled Afghanistan women cricketers get more ICC backing

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has increased its support for displaced women cricketers of Afghanistan to help them return to play.

Most were forced into exile when the Taliban regained power in 2021 and then effectively outlawed women from playing sport.

Many fled to Australia and held a match — without their official crest — in Melbourne earlier this year.

The ICC’s annual conference in Singapore at the weekend heard that progress had been made on the governing body’s Afghanistan women’s cricket initiative.

“The programme aims to deliver structured support,” the ICC said in a statement late Sunday.

It includes “domestic playing opportunities, and engagement at key ICC global events, including the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 in India and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in England,” the statement continued, without giving details.

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But reports said it will enable Afghanistan women players the chance to speak to fellow international cricketers and attend workshops conducted by coaches at the global showpieces.

The initiative is a collaborative effort by the cricket boards of India, England, and Australia under the supervision of ICC deputy chair Imran Khwaja.

Moreover, the ICC also announced that England will host the upcoming editions of the World Test Championship (WTC) final until 2031.

The decision to hand over the hosting rights to England was made in light of the successful hosting of previous editions of the WTC finals.

England has previously hosted the inaugural 2021 edition, as well as the 2023 and 2025 editions.

For the unversed, South Africa is the current holder of the ICC WTC title, having defeated the defending champions Australia in the final held at the iconic Lord’s in the previous month.

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USA cricket in trouble as ICC considers suspension: reports

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is reportedly preparing to take stern action against USA Cricket (USAC) as the governing body’s 12-month notice period for governance reforms nears its end, according to international media.

The notice, issued in July 2024, came after the ICC flagged serious concerns over USAC’s internal structure, ranging from a lack of transparency and operational inefficiencies to persistent governance lapses.

In response, the ICC had appointed a normalisation committee tasked with steering USAC back to stability.

However, sources within the global body suggest that little tangible progress has been made over the past year, raising the possibility of a suspension.

“There’s been more resistance than reform,” one unnamed ICC official was quoted as saying. “We’ve provided ample time and support. The lack of progress is no longer acceptable.”

The official’s comments reflect growing frustration within the ICC over USAC’s inability, or unwillingness, to implement the necessary structural changes.

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According to reports, internal resistance within the USAC board and ineffective leadership have repeatedly hampered the committee’s efforts.

Earlier this month, an ICC delegation visited Los Angeles for urgent meetings with officials from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and members of the normalisation committee.

The visit was described as a last-ditch effort to assess whether the USA cricket board had taken any meaningful steps toward reform.

During the meetings, ICC officials reportedly underlined that governance overhaul is non-negotiable, especially with cricket’s return to the Olympic stage looming at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

While no official decision has been made yet, insiders say the clock is ticking. A final verdict is expected ahead of the ICC’s Annual Conference next month, where failure to demonstrate clear leadership reforms could result in USAC’s suspension from the global cricketing community.

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ICC unveils nominees for Player of the Month awards for July 2024

DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday, unveiled the nominees for the Player of the Month Awards for July 2024.

The ICC Player of the Month award acknowledges the magnificent individual performers on the international stage, and the names shortlisted for July span a range of formats.

The nominees for the Player of the Month include England’s pace bowler Gus Atkinson, India’s off-spinner Washington Sundar and Scotland’s pace bowler Charlie Cassell.

The Scottish pace bowler made his ODI debut in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 match against Oman.

He made an unforgettable first impression as he claimed the best bowling figures on debut in ODI cricket, breaking South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada’s nine-year-old record.

Charlie Cassell claimed the spectacular bowling figures of 7-21, becoming the first bowler to take seven wickets on debut.

Another debutant, who left a lasting impression in his first game is Gus Atkinson, who made his Test debut in legendary James Anderson’s farewell international match during the series against West Indies.

Atkinson dismantled the West Indian batting line-up as he claimed a five-wicket haul in each inning, returning with 12 wickets in the match.

He was adjudged man of the match for his heroics as England thumped West Indies by a massive margin of an innings and 114 runs.

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The 26-year-old ran continued his impressive form in the subsequent games, taking 10 more wickets across the remaining two Tests.

He was key to England’s clean sweep victory and earned the Player of the Series award for taking 12 wickets.

The third nominee for the coveted ICC Player of the Month Award is Washington Sundar, who returned to the Indian side during the T20I series against Zimbabwe.

Sundar stepped up in the absence of India’s first-choice players, who were rested for the series following the team’s ICC T20 World Cup 2024 triumph.

The spin-bowling all-rounder proved his worth and helped India defeat Zimbabwe 2-1 in the series. He was adjudged Player of the Series for his eight wickets across three games.

He played a solitary game in the following T20I series against Sri Lanka as India’s regular players returned to the side.

However, he gave an impactful performance in the only game he played. He scored a crucial 25 off 18 balls to help India post 137/9.

He then picked two important wickets during Sri Lanka’s innings to force the game into Super Over as the hosts managed 137/8 in 20 overs.

Rohit Sharma trusted Sundar to bowl the Super Over and the off-spinner repaid the faith, taking two wickets for two runs, which earned him a Player of the Match award.

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Pakistan, India lead the way in WTC25 standings after Ashes sanctions

DUBAI: England and Australia had points deducted from their tally due to a slow over-rate in the Ashes series, which affected the World Test Championship (WTC25) standings.

The gap at the top of the ICC World Test Championship standings has further widened significantly after England and Australia were hit with sanctions at the end of the Ashes.

England were docked 19 points and Australia 10 points as a penalty for slow over-rate across the series as they fell further down the WTC25 standings.

As a result, Asian neighbours Pakistan and India lead the way in the standings, firmly occupying the top two spots after an unbeaten start to WTC25.

Pakistan have made a perfect start to the 2023-25 campaign with a point percentage of 100 after their clean sweep against Sri Lanka. After a closely fought first Test, Babar Azam’s men dominated the hosts with a thumping innings victory in the second Test.

Closely tailing them are India in the second spot with 66.66%, who have a win and a draw against their name after their series against West Indies.

India set the tone with a massive innings win in the first Test but rain dampened their hopes of a clean sweep in the second Test that ended in stalemate.

Before the sanctions, England and Australia had 26 points each and a point percentage of 43.33. After the penalties, Australia dropped to 30% while England plummeted to 15%, taking them below West Indies at 16.67%.

Having been whitewashed 2-0 at home, Sri Lanka are at the bottom with 0 points. Bangladesh, New Zealand and South Africa are yet to kickstart their campaign in the current iteration of the WTC25.

Adding to the misery, Australia lost their top spot in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Rankings as England made an impressive comeback from 2-0 to 2-2 in the Ashes. Tied on 118 points, India are on top on decimal points (118.4 points) as Australia (117.8) drop to second.

England are closing in on top after gaining one point from the drawn series, moving to 115 points.

READ: India blow away West Indies in decider to seal ODI series

ICC’s new financial model to offer twice the revenue to PCB

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday, announced that it will receive “more than two times” revenue from the new International Cricket Council (ICC) financial model.

ICC Board, Committee meetings and the Annual Conference took place in Durban, South Africa, from 10-13 July 2023. PCB’s delegation represented Pakistan at these meetings during which Equal prize money for men’s and women’s teams at ICC Events, ICC Financial and Distribution Model 2024-27, Amendments to the ICC Sanctioning Regulations and Modifications to the over rate sanctions in Test cricket amongst other matters were discussed.

The new ICC financial and distribution model envisages the largest-ever investment to go into global cricket and provides a huge opportunity for the game to grow further.

In determining the distribution share to members, the model considers on and off field performance including cricket rankings, performance at ICC events, and commercial contribution to the ICC Events.

PCB, in accordance with it’s constitutional right, has over the past few weeks and at the ICC Meetings, consistently sought additional information to better understand the rationale behind allocation of weightages to each of the criteria and the calculation of the distributions. The PCB felt in the absence of all relevant information, data and formulae, such a significant decision should not be taken in haste.

The PCB, therefore, proposed that this item may be deferred to the next ICC meeting.

Ultimately, majority of members did not find it feasible to defer this item and voted in favour of passing the Model, while the PCB recorded its dissent as a matter principle.

Consequently, due to the Pakistan cricket team’s performance in men’s ICC events and in bilateral cricket, the PCB’s own huge fan-base, which leads to significant commercial value, the PCB was ranked amongst the top-four nations in this Model. As such, the PCB will receive more than two times the revenue when compared to the last cycle.

This increased share of revenue will mean that a far greater investment can be made in developing cricketing skills and will be beneficial in taking Pakistan Cricket to new heights. This was a welcome news for the Pakistani fans and our great nation.

A number of fruitful meetings were held by Mr Zaka Ashraf, Chair of the PCB’s Management Committee, with fellow cricket board officials on the sidelines of the ICC meetings where collaborations and mutually beneficial programs to further cricket development and growth were discussed.

On Saturday, 15 July, a meeting was held between the PCB and ACC officials in respect of finalising the schedule of the Asia Cup 2023, logistical and organizational arrangements and marketing campaigns.

The finalised schedule is likely to be announced during this week. With the opening match scheduled to kick off in Pakistan, the PCB, as the event host, looks forward to welcoming cricket fans from across the world to experience Pakistan’s renowned hospitality.

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ICC to take action against franchise leagues: English Media

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to take action against the franchise leagues around the world in a bid to prevent Test cricket, English media outlet The Telegraph reported.

According to the details, the ICC expressed concern about the players prioritizing franchise cricket over international assignments and thus wants to control the leagues.

In a bid to retain the integrity of international cricket, the cricket governing body is looking to impose certain changes to the franchise leagues.

Consequently, the ICC will limit the number of overseas players in a team’s Playing XI and will bind the franchises to pay national boards for each of the players they sign.

Thus ICC will then be able to protect the interests of various national cricket boards thanks to the decrease in the number of foreign players per side.

Recently, the chief executive of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Richard Gould raised concerns over the fast-growing numbers of franchise leagues.

“The difficulty for ECB and our revenues is that we have so many mouths to feed, whereas the franchise tournaments can take the cream off the top, they don’t get charged for the players,” Gould told The Final Word this month.

“They are very efficient models at getting money back into the players’ pockets, but they are not funding the pathway. We need to fund the pathway. We will always do that. Having a really strong, healthy pathway is the secret to long-term success,” he added.

Recently, a similar controversy emerged in the cricketing world after England’s hard-hitting opener Jason Roy terminated his ECB central contract to partake in the lucrative franchise league Major Cricket League (MCL) in the United States of America (USA).

Later, Roy shared his statement to address the long-going speculations about him leaving and expressed his hope to continue playing for England for “many more years”, while also sharing that the ECB has allowed him to play in MLC after “clear and supportive conversations”.

“Following a bit of unwanted speculation over the last 24 hours, I wanted to clarify that I am not and never will ‘walk away from England’,” said Roy in a tweet.

“Representing my country continuous to be my proudest moment as a professional cricketer. I hope to play for England for many more years, that remains my priority.”

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Batters can ‘now’ run after being bowled, ICC amends Free Hit rule

DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday, made major tweaks to the Playing Conditions, including Free Hit rule, effective from June 1, 2023.

Following the Chief Executives’ Committee’s approval of the suggestions made by the Sourav Ganguly-led Men’s Cricket Committee and the Women’s Cricket Committee, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced modifications to the Playing Conditions.

The changes involved a minor yet prominent change to the Free Hit rule; allowing the batters to attempt for runs after being bowled.

“There was also a minor addition to the Free Hit rule with any runs scored off a Free Hit when the ball hits the stumps counted as runs scored from now,” said ICC in a statement.

“This would mean that batters can now be bowled off a Free Hit and attempt a run for the same,” the statement added.

A controversy sparked after crucial runs were awarded to India despite Virat Kohli being bowled out on a free-hit delivery in the nerve-wracking game against Pakistan in the last year’s T20 World Cup.

Furthermore, the cricket governing body scrapped the soft signal rule, with umpires no longer required to give a soft signal when referring decisions to the TV umpire.

“The on-field umpires will consult with the TV umpire before any decisions are taken,” the ICC confirmed.

“Soft signals have been discussed at previous cricket committee meetings over the last couple of years,” Ganguly said.

“The committee deliberated this at length and concluded that soft signals were unnecessary and at times confusing since referrals of catches may seem inconclusive in replays.”

Another major announcement saw the usage of helmets being made compulsory at high-risk positions by the ICC.

when batters are facing fast bowlers
when wicketkeepers are standing up to the stumps
when fielders are close to the batter in front of the wicket.

“We also discussed player safety, which is very important for us.,” Ganguly said. “The committee decided that it was best to make the use of helmets mandatory in certain positions to ensure the safety of players.”

It is worth mentioning here the changes will come into effect on June 1, 2023 with the Lord’s Test between England and Ireland, a four-day one-off Test match.

The following World Test Championship final between India and Australia, starting June 7, will also follow these new Playing Conditions.

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Rashid Latif, Javed Miandad give lectures in ICC Level 3 Coaching Course

LAHORE: Former Pakistan Test cricketers Javed Miandad and Rashid Latif gave lectures in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Level 3 Coaching Course here on Friday.

According to the details, the ICC Coaching Course is underway here at the National High-Performance Centre where two legendary cricketers of Pakistan participated and shared valuable tips with the participants.

Legendary batter Miandad shared valuable information regarding batting coaching with the participants, while former captain Latif lectured on wicketkeeping coaching.

It is pertinent to mention that numerous former cricketers including Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umar, Zulfiqar Babar and Mohammad Yousuf were among the participants in the ongoing Coaching Course.

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ICC reveals hosts for Women’s Global Events till 2027

DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has unveiled the host nations for the upcoming four women’s global events from 2024-27, India, England, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka included.

Following the annual conference of the cricket governing body, the ICC has revealed the hosts for their Future Tour Programme (FTP).

As a result, Bangladesh will host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup for the second time in 2024, while England will host the tournament for the first time since 2009 in 2026.

India, on the other hand, has been awarded the hosting rights of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025. Whereas, Sri Lanka was chosen host of the ICC Women’s T20 Champions Trophy 2027, subject to their qualification for the event.

A Board sub-committee of the ICC, led by Martin Snedden and comprised of Ricky Skerritt, Clare Connor, Martin Snedden, and the chairman of the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) Sourav Ganguly conducted a competitive bidding process to choose the hosts.

“The hosts were selected via a competitive bidding process overseen by a Board sub-committee chaired by Martin Snedden,” the ICC stated.

“The ICC Board accepted the recommendations of the committee who conducted a thorough review of each bid along with ICC management,” the statement added.

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ICC announces qualification pathway for 2024 Men’s T20I World Cup

DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday, announced the qualification pathway for the biggest ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2024, scheduled to be hosted in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).

In an official statement released by the ICC, the cricket governing body revealed the road to the biggest ICC T20 World Cup, which is set to feature a record 20 teams.

The eight top-performing teams of the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia alongside the hosts West Indies and the USA will automatically qualify for the global event.

The remaining next top-ranked teams will also qualify automatically for the marquee event; taking the tally to 12.

The remaining eight spots will then be decided after the regional qualifier events. Two teams each will qualify from Africa, Asia, and Europe while one team each from the Americas and EAP regions will make their way into the global event.

According to the ICC, a total of 66 teams will fight it out in the regional qualifiers with the goal of making their way into the biggest ICC T20 World Cup. Hungary, Romania, and Serbia, are all set to make their debut during the pathway events.

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