Key Decisions from ICC Board Meeting – 15th March, 2024
The International Cricket Council (ICC) convened in Dubai this week, with the primary focus being the future structure and context of international bilateral cricket.
Both the Board and the Chief Executives’ Committee engaged in comprehensive discussions about the future game structure, addressing issues such as providing more context for international white ball matches, the feasibility of scheduling windows, and the principles of the commercial arrangements supporting the Future Tours Programme (FTP).
Words from ICC Chair Greg Barclay
Greg Barclay, the ICC Chair, stated, “The ICC Board and Committee meetings serve as a platform for us to deliberate on the long-term future of the international game. We spent a significant amount of time constructively discussing the structure of the global cricket calendar during these meetings.”
“While there are no easy solutions, we are committed to exploring how context can be delivered and will consider further options at upcoming meetings,” he added.
Stop Clock to be a Permanent Feature
The Board also confirmed the stop clock will become a permanent fixture in all ODIs and T20Is. The playing conditions for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 were also approved, as was the qualification process for the 2026 edition of the event.
The results of the stop clock trial were presented to the Chief Executives’ Committee, which demonstrated that around 20 minutes per ODI match had been saved in time.
Given the clear improvement to the flow of the game, the CEC approved that the stop clock be introduced as a mandatory playing condition in all men’s ODI and T20I matches between Full Members from 1 June 2024, including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Playing Conditions
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will have reserve days scheduled for the semi-finals and final. In the group stage and Super Eight series, a minimum of five overs have to be bowled to the team batting second to constitute a game, while in the knock-out stages, a minimum of ten overs will need to be bowled.
Qualification Process for ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026
The ICC Board also approved the qualification process for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. The event, which will be held in India and Sri Lanka, will see 12 automatic qualifiers. These will include the joint hosts along with the top eight teams from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 with the remaining spots (between 2-4 depending on host finishing positions) to be filled from the next highest ranked teams on the ICC Men’s T20I rankings table as at 30 June 2024.
The remaining eight teams will be identified through Regional Qualifiers.