Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Cote D'Ivoire receive membership status from ICC

The ongoing ICC Annual Conference in Birmingham saw two Asian countries, Cambodia and Uzbekistan alongside an African nation Cote D’Ivoire receiving membership status. The three new countries were rewarded with membership status on Tuesday (July 26) after they satisfied the ICC membership criteria in ‘Participation and domestic structures’ of Clause 2.1 (d).

The Participation and domestic structures state, that the criteria includes “having in place domestic participation structures which include national 50-over tournament structures, which comprise at least three 3 teams with List A status, and national 20-over tournament structures which comprise at least three 3 teams with List A Twenty20 status”.

Apart from this, the country should also “have satisfactory junior pathway structures, have satisfactory women’s pathway structures in place, have a sustained and sufficient pool of players to support strong and consistent national level selection across the senior men’s, U19 and women’s teams; and have strong domestic participation levels in the sport and evidence of significant growth over the previous eight 8 years”.

ICC’s total members increased to 108 including 96 associates

ICC now has a total of 108 members at the moment after the inclusion of three countries with 12 Test-playing nations and 96 Associates. Cambodia and Uzbekistan have taken the number of Asian countries to 25 while Cote D’Ivoire becomes the 21st African nation to receive membership status.

It has been learnt that the Cricket Federation of Uzbekistan (CFU) has been working on a women’s cricket tournament featuring 15 teams alongside providing a platform for the U-17 and U-19 players. The Cricket Association of Cambodia (CAC) had also demonstrated a successful pathway for women’s cricket while they also have a T20 cricket tournament in work towards the end of the year.

Cote D’Ivoire cricket federation has the strongest foundation among the three, as they run a national league senior men’s competition with eight teams. Their involvement in the development of women’s cricket has also gone to the next level with the appointment of a female Board member to work on the initiatives.