International Cricket Council (ICC) head of all the Cricket boards of each nation whether it is Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), England Cricket Board (ECB), etc. all of these work on the directives and the rules and orders of ICC. This world cricket governing body was formed in 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Council by the representatives of Australia, England, and South Africa. It was renamed to its current name in 1987.
ICC is responsible for organizing events like World Test Championship, Cricket World Cup, Women's Cricket World Cup, ICC T20 World Cup, ICC Women's T20 World Cup, ICC Men's Champions Trophy, ICC Women's Champions Trophy, Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and Cricket in Commonwealth Games. The ICC does not control the bilateral fixtures between the member countries which includes test matches as well.The current headquarters of ICC has been in Dubai, UAE since 2005 and has 104 members of which there are 12 test-playing nations. On Tuesday, June 1 ICC announced very big news for all the cricket fans around the world and it is the expansion of ICC global events starting in the next few years.
ALL ABOUT EXPANSION OF EVENTS-
On Tuesday, all the cricket fans around the globe received very big news as ICC announced an expansion of ICC Global events for the upcoming years. The board confirmed the schedule for the ICC events which are scheduled between 2024-2031.Both ICC men's T20 World cup and ICC Men's cricket world cup to be expanded and also the champions trophy to be re-introduced. The ICC Men's cricket world cup will become a 14 team and a 54 match event in 2027 and 2031, the ICC Men's T20 world cup will be expanded to a 20 team and 55 matches mega event in 2024, 2026, 2028, and 2030 which is now played between 12 teams only. The champions trophy will be for the 2025 and 2029 editions between 8 teams competing for the trophy.
The ICC world test championship finals will be hosted in 2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031. For your information as well India is all set to play the final ICC test championship this year on June 18 2021 against New Zealand at Southampton (England).
Many cricket fans were unhappy regarding the ICC events for Women's cricket and feel that ICC is not giving heed to Women's cricket compared to Men's one. Keeping in mind this as well the board the ICC Women's cricket schedule has already been confirmed with the expansion of both the T20 world cup and Cricket world cup setting up a long chain of events and helping towards the growth of Women's cricket as well.
CHANGE IN FORMAT
The ICC Men's cricket world cup will have two groups of seven, with the top three in each group entering the super six stage, followed by semi-finals and final. The same format was used in the 2003 ICC Men's cricket world cup.
The format of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup will consist of four groups of five, with the top two from each group going through to a Super Eights stage, followed by the knockout stages of semi-finals and a final. The ICC champions trophy will follow the previous format only with two groups of four, semi-finals and final.
The ICC board has also requested management focus its planning efforts for the ICC men's T20 world cup 2021 on the event being staged in UAE with the discussions still going on deciding the venue somewhere else in the Middle east. The ICC also confirmed that BCCI will remain the host for the T20 world cup 2021 no matter where the event takes place and later this month the Host country will be confirmed as well.
ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said: "Having the ICC event schedule confirmed through to 2031 is a significant step forward for cricket and will form the basis of our growth strategy for the next decade.
ICC also said-
"The revised approach to selecting hosts for our events will give us much more flexibility to grow the game and engage new fans. There is a smaller pool of countries with the infrastructure needed to host our senior Men's events which narrows the selection process. Additionally, many of our members expressed interest in hosting Women's and U19 events which gives us a great opportunity to stage events in established and emerging cricket nations."
So cricket fans get ready for the mega-events starting from this year only, purchase your team jersey and start supporting it from now on only because it is going to be a long journey and without cricket fans, it won't be possible to make these events more mega and interesting.
-Vardaan Gulla