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ICC Delegates at Lord's 1998. Representatives from Affiliate countries may say halo and watch the cricket but have no vote on anything.This year Affiliates outnumbered the rest of ICC's members for the first time.
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POWER TO THE MAJORITY ?
As a result of the elections to membership earlier this year a most significant and new situation emerged. The Affiliate members of ICC now make up the majority. They are 37 while Associates are 26 and then there are the 10 full members.
Since Affiliates were first invented they have enjoyed no votes at ICC on anything including matters pertaining to themselves. Now there are many who argue that the division between Associates and Affiliates is largely artificial especially with some Associates only being such because they joined before Affiliate membership had been invented. Yet the significance for the difference in membership is immense for Associates receive funding for development, Affiliates do not.
Again to anyone who knows the situation fairly well it is obvious that there any number of splendid projects and potential opportunities in Affiliate countries as any to be found in Associates. Some Affiliates and some countries yet to Affiliate include the most populous counties in the world. Likewise some are rich countries with huge sports investment budgets and so on.
These considerations apart, the sheer weight of numbers of Affiliates and the volume of good people from them with all sorts of skills, qualifications and experience inside and outside cricket makes for an overwhelming moral argument to revise the current arrangement. With active Regional Development Officers roaming the globe this situation is likely to grow year by year for some time.
A world governing sports body which denies the increasing majority of its members any vote on anything is simply daft. However innocently inherited from another age it gives the impression of arrogance and indifference that is utterly inappropriate.
Affiliates in some regions do participate in management committees of some regional cricket councils but this is patchy and not the rule. ICC is examining its governance and many more matters under its new Chief Executive Malcolm Speed. It would do well to reconsider its membership categories, even better to abolish them.
If the fear is that the loony minnows will intervere with Test and First Class Cricket to its detriment then specific areas of the game may accordingly be ring fenced. The crucial area of concern is, of course, the targetting of development funds, facilities and personel.
Historically ICC funds have been used to support national teams, (adult and youth) competing in ICC and regional councils’ competitions together with coaching by ICC designated national coaches. What is urgently required is an ICC function for assessing projects submitted great and small and allocating resources accordingly. It also must have the right and access to independently of national associations where these are seen to be obstructive for whatever motive.
Naturally one would hope these to be few but there have already been too many crass 'cock ups' by idiotic associations’ executive personel to make this implementation of this principle imperative. There are similar instances of brave and bold new development over the last two decades imploding to a fraction of its recent facilities essentially because ICC has nothing to say to Affiliates, its mayors and sports ministers at the very same time as other sports are promoting themselves and this includes Baseball to the very same decision making people.
It was perhaps a policy born in origin out of poverty which looked to the locals in a new cricket country to develop it from their own energy and resources before ICC became involved. Now that ICC has funds and the means to raise yet more it is timely for it build a broader vision and see it itself as an initiating partner in development with the relevant sports authorities in appropriate countries.
First though is the importance of giving the Affiliates and the rest of the world’s cricket voting representation at ICC.
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ICC - Now and for the future, 8th October
ICC'S VISION FOR THE FUTURE- presentation Lord's11:00hrs BST, 8th October 2001
The ICC will present its vision for the future of the international game at a special event at Lord's Cricket Ground, London, on 8th October.
At 'ICC - now and for the future', President Malcolm Gray and Chief Executive Officer, Malcolm Speed, will outline a blueprint for the development of the ICC into a world governing body of status and influence.
The audience of representatives from the international cricketing community, media and sponsors will be hosted by leading cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle as master of ceremonies.
The ICC will be using the event to unveil one of the first tangible stages of its progress, a striking new visual identity. An international media dial-in facility has been established for the event.
To follow the proceedings from 10:45hrs on +44 (0) 1296 480100 (quote ref: C469555)
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10 Full members who play Test Cricket, automatically play in the ICC World Cup and play ICC Accredited One day Limited Over Internationals.
Members and date of membership:
AUSTRALIA 15 June 1909
BANGLADESH
ENGLAND 15 June 1909
INDIA 31 May 1926
NEW ZEALAND 31 May 1926
PAKISTAN 28 July 1953
SOUTH AFRICA (15 June 1909*)10 July 1991
SRI LANKA 21 July 1981
WEST INDIES 31 May 1926
ZIMBABWE 6 July 1992
* South Africa ceased to be a member of the ICC on leaving the British Commonwealth in May 1961+, and was elected a Full Member on 10 July 1991.
+ This was because the original ICC was the Imperial Cricket council which required membership of the Commonwealth as a prerequisite of membership. This astonishing conceit is the single most reason for the failure of cricket to become a burgeoning world sport through the 20th century given its worldwide popularity and establishment by 1900 in comparison with other major sports.
26 Associate Members who compete in the ICC Trophy and have been funded from the World Cup revenues.
Member date of election
ARGENTINA 1974
BERMUDA 1966
CANADA 1968+
DENMARK 1966
EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA 1966*
FIJI 1965 The oldest Associate member
FRANCE 1998
GERMANY 1999
GIBRALTAR 1969
HONG KONG 1969
IRELAND 1993
ISRAEL 1974
ITALY 1995
KENYA 1981****
MALAYSIA 1967
NAMIBIA 1992+
THE NETHERLANDS 1966+
NEPAL 1996
PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1973
SCOTLAND 1994
SINGAPORE 1974
TANZANIA 2001
UGANDA 1998
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 1990
U.S.A. 1965
WEST AFRICA 1976* *
*East and Central Africa comprises Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania but originally also Kenya and Uganda.
** West Africa comprises Gambia, Ghana Sierra leone and originally Liberia where cricket has died out.
***Kenya has ICC status for ODIs but not Test matches and qualifies automatically for the ICC World Cup.
+ These three countries qualified for the next World Cup and with Kenya are to receive special development funding $1M and coaching resources up to the ICC World Cup.
37 Affiliate Members who have no vote and no right to any funds from World Cup revenues.
Member and date of election
AFGANISTAN 2001
AUSTRIA 1992
BAHAMAS 1987
BAHRAIN 2001
BELGIUM 1991
BELIZE 1997
BHUTAN 2001
BOTSWANA 2001
BRUNEI 1992
CAYMAN ISLANDS 1997
COOK ISLANDS 2000
CROATIA 2001
CYPRUS 1999
CZECH REPUBLIC 2000
FINLAND 2000
GREECE 1995
INDONESIA 2001
JAPAN 1989
SOUTH KOREA 2001
KUWAIT 1998
LESOTHO 2001
LUXEMBOURG 1998
MALDIVES 2001
MALTA 1996
QATAR 1999
SAMOA 2000
SPAIN 1992
ST HELENA 2001
SWEDEN 1997
SWITZERLAND 1985 The oldest Affiliate member
THAILAND 1995
TONGA 2000
VANUATU 1995
There are a great number of countries who already have membership of Continental Regional Councils where they exist and have competed in RCC competitions at adult and youth levels but are still not members of ICC. Applications for membership are as much a result of the diligence and enthusiasm of ICC's Regional development officers as local initiative. When John Shepherd was Americas RDO he was not interested in such matters so no one joined but the new man Robert Weekes will presumably rectify that. It is now an oddity to find no cricket being played in a sovereign state so ICC's membership may still double in afew years and all of thses will start as non voting Affiliates unless something changes soon.
The procedure for an Affiliate to become an Associate involves assessment by ICC usually in the form of an MCC Tour and report and an inspection by an ICC executive and also someone from the Associates committee. The countries that have become Associates are so diverse in character, number of clubs,numbers of nationals playing, numbers of youngsters playing, quality of grounds etc as to make it difficult to pin point the exact requirements..and on top of that there have been some who have by-passed the Affiliate membership altogether.
The reality is that to become an Associate is as much about politicking as anything else and some have been much better at that than others.
Ideally countries will one day be categorised for competition purposes only and for development purposes a member should be a member pure and simple with funds going to it on the basis of the quality of project and the perceived potentilal.
Proposals exist to set up a Davis Cup type ladder of countries by continental region at the lower end as well as a radical rethink as to the criteria for so called development funds being dished out.
The fear is that these proposals will exclude the Affiliates which if so, will be totaly counter-productive.
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