ICC confirm Chair’s term extension, chart pathway for women’s cricket expansion

At their latest board meeting in Dubai, the International Cricket Council (ICC) have officially recommended changing the tenure of their Chair and Independent Director. As reported by Cricbuzz earlier, the term would be extended from the current two years to three years. Additionally, instead of the current eligibility for three consecutive terms, future Chairs would only be allowed to be re-elected once. It means that one can be the ICC Chair for six years, as was previously the case, but he/she would need to be elected twice, not thrice.

Jay Shah, who was elected unopposed as the new ICC Chairman, is set to take charge on December 1, 2024.

In a major boost for women’s cricket and in order to prepare for the expansion of ICC events in 2028-2031 cycle, the board also announced the introduction of two annual T20I tournaments for women’s Associate Member (AM) teams starting in 2025. The competitions would provide “structured cricket with context” to the 24 teams in order to qualify for the 16-team ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2030.

In a related development, the ICC outlined the mechanism for awarding ODI status to women’s Associate teams for the 2025-2029 cycle. A maximum of two Associate teams will earn ODI status by qualifying for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier in 2025, with the remaining three slots determined by ICC T20I rankings during the annual update.

Additionally, the ICC confirmed that the women’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) for 2025-2029 will be published in the coming days. Other updates include shifting the annual update for women’s team rankings from October 1 to May 1 each year. To reflect the growing volume of international women’s cricket and to maintain ranking eligibility, teams must now play a minimum of eight matches, which is up from six.

On the governance front, the ICC also announced key appointments. Scott Weenink and Scott Edwards will join the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee as Full Member and Associate Member representatives, respectively. Meanwhile, Dr. John Maclean will take over from Dr. Roger Hawkes on the Medical Advisory Committee following the latter’s retirement.