THE INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL (ICC)

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. It was renamed as the International Cricket Conference in 1965 and adopted its current name in 1987. The ICC has its headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.The ICC currently has 108 member nations: 12 Full Members that play Test matches, and 96 Associate Members.The ICC is responsible for the organisation and governance of cricket’s major international tournaments, most notably the Cricket World Cup, T20 World Cup, and ICC World Test Championship. It also appoints the umpires and referees that officiate at all sanctioned Test matches, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. It promulgates the ICC Code of Conduct, which sets professional standards of discipline for international cricket,and also co-ordinates action against corruption and match-fixing through its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU).The ICC does not control bilateral fixtures between member countries (which include all Test matches), and neither does it govern domestic cricket within member countries. It does not make or alter the laws of the game, which have remained under the governance of the Marylebone Cricket Club since 1788.On 30 November 1907, Abe Bailey, the President of the South African Cricket Association, wrote a letter to the Marylebone Cricket Club’s (MCC, England) secretary, Francis Lacey. Bailey suggested the formation of an ‘Imperial Cricket Board’. In the letter, he suggested that the board would be responsible for the formulation of rules and regulations that would govern the international matches between the three members, Australia, England and South Africa. Bailey wanted to host a Triangular Test series between the participant countries in South Africa. However, Australia rejected the offer. Still, Bailey did not lose hope. He saw an opportunity of getting the three members together during Australia’s tour of England in 1909. After continued lobbying and efforts, Bailey was successful.On 15 June 1909, representatives from England, Australia and South Africa met at Lord’s and founded the Imperial Cricket Conference. A month later, a second meeting between the three members was held. The rules were agreed upon amongst the nations, and the first-ever Tri-Test series was decided to be held in England in 1912.In 1926, West Indies, New Zealand and India were elected as Full Members, doubling the number of Test-playing nations to six. After the formation of Pakistan in 1947, it was given Test status five years later in 1952, becoming the seventh Test-playing nation. In May 1961, South Africa left the Commonwealth and therefore lost membership.In 1968, Denmark, Bermuda, Netherlands, and East Africa were admitted as Associates, while South Africa had still not applied to rejoin the ICC.

In 1969, the basic rules of ICC were amended.

At the 1971 meeting, the idea of organizing a World Cup was introduced. At the 1973 meeting, it was decided that a World Cup would be played in 1975 in England. The six Test playing nations and East Africa and Sri Lanka were invited to take part.New members were added frequently during this period:

In 1974, Israel and Singapore were admitted as Associates.

In 1976, West Africa was admitted as an Associate.

In 1977, Bangladesh was admitted as an Associate.

In 1978, Papua-New Guinea was admitted as an Associate. South Africa applied to rejoin, but their application was rejected.

In 1981, Sri Lanka was promoted to a Full Member, and they played their first Test in 1982.

In 1984, a third class of membership (Affiliate) was introduced. Italy was the first such member, followed by Switzerland in 1985. In 1987, Bahamas and France were admitted, followed by Nepal in 1988.

1989–present – International Cricket Council
edit
At the July 1989 meeting, the ICC renamed itself as the International Cricket Council, and the tradition of the MCC President automatically becoming the Chairman of ICC was abolished.[12]

In 1990, UAE joined as an Associate.

In 1991, for the first time in ICC history, the meeting was held away from England, in Melbourne, Australia. South Africa was re-elected as a Full Member of the ICC in July, following the end of apartheid.

In 1992, Zimbabwe was admitted as the ninth Full Member. Namibia joined as an Associate member. Austria, Belgium, Brunei and Spain all joined as Affiliates.

In 1993, the position of Chief Executive of ICC was created; David Richards of the Australian Cricket Board was the first person appointed to the position. In July, Sir Clyde Walcott, from Barbados, was elected as the first non-British Chairman. The emergence of new technology saw the introduction of a third umpire who was equipped with video playback facilities.

By 1995, TV replays were made available for run-outs and stumpings in Test matches, with the third umpire required to signal out or not out with red and green lights respectively. The following year, the cameras were used to determine if the ball had crossed the boundary.

In 1997 decisions on the cleanness of catches could be referred to the third umpire. This year also saw the introduction of the Duckworth-Lewis method, a way of adjusting targets in rain-affected ODI matches.

In 2000, Bangladesh was admitted as the tenth Full Member of the International Cricket Council.

In 2005, ICC moved to its new headquarters to Dubai.In 2017, Afghanistan and Ireland were admitted as the eleventh and twelfth Full Members of the International Cricket Council after a unanimous vote at the ICC Full Council meeting at The Oval. Affiliate Membership was also abolished, with all existing Affiliate Members becoming Associate Members.

In 2018, all Women’s T20 matches were elevated to Women’s Twenty20 International status.

In 2019, all Men’s T20 matches were elevated to Twenty20 International status.

In July 2022, Cambodia, Cote D’Ivoire, and Uzbekistan were granted associate member status by the ICC.From its formation, the ICC had the Lord’s Cricket Ground as its home, and in 1993 moved its offices to the “Clock Tower” building at the nursery end of the ground. The independently run ICC was funded initially by commercial exploitation of the rights to the World Cup of One Day International cricket. As not all Member countries had double-tax agreements with the United Kingdom, it was necessary to protect cricket’s revenues by creating a company, ICC Development (International) Pvt. Ltd, known as IDI outside the UK. This was established in January 1994 and was based in Monaco.For the remainder of the nineties, the administration of IDI was a modest affair. But with the negotiation of a bundle of rights to all ICC events from 2001 to 2008, revenues available to International cricket and the ICC member countries rose substantially. This led to a growth in the number of commercial staff employed by IDI in Monaco. It also had the disadvantage that the council’s cricket administrators, who remained at Lord’s, were separated from their commercial colleagues in Monaco. The Council decided to seek ways of bringing all of their staff together in one office while protecting their commercial income from tax.The option of staying at Lord’s was investigated and a request was made, through Sport England, to the British Government to allow the ICC to have all its personnel (including those working on commercial matters) in London – but be given special exemption from paying UK corporation tax on its commercial income. The British Government was unwilling to create a precedent and would not agree to this request. As a consequence, the ICC examined other locations and eventually settled on the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The ICC is also registered in British Virgin Islands. In August 2005, the ICC moved its offices to Dubai, and subsequently closed its offices at Lord’s and Monaco. The move to Dubai was made after an 11–1 vote by the ICC’s executive board in favour.While the principal driver of the ICC’s move to Dubai was the wish to bring its main employees together in one tax-efficient location, a secondary reason was the wish to move offices closer to the increasingly important new centres of cricketing power in South Asia. Lord’s had been a logical venue when the ICC had been administered by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) (a situation that lasted until 1993). But the growing power of India and Pakistan in world cricket had made the continued control of international cricket by a British private members club (the MCC) anachronistic and unsustainable. A direct consequence of the changes and reforms instituted in 1993 was eventually to be the move away from Lord’s to a more neutral venue.