Picture Credit: Twitter
The International Cricket Council conducted a meeting for the first time post the suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and confirmed the board’s suspension. In the meeting, several important decisions were taken regarding Sri Lanka’s participation in several tournaments. The international cricket governing body decided that Sri Lanka would continue competing internationally both in bilateral cricket as well as ICC events.
A few changes were also made by the ICC, which include the control of funding. Not only this, but ICC also confirmed that Sri Lanka will no longer host the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2024, giving the hosting rights to South Africa. Not only this, but the ICC Board also approved of new gender eligibility regulations for the international game following a 9-month consultation process with the stakeholders.
The new policy is based on a few principles including protection of the integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness and inclusion. As per the ICC, it means, “Any Male to Female participants who have been through any form of male puberty will not be eligible to participate in the international women’s game regardless of any surgery or gender reassignment treatment they may have undertaken.”
Apart from that, the Chief Executives’ Committee presented the landmark decision of equalising match-day pay for the ICC umpires across both men’s and women’s cricket. In addition, there will be one neutral umpire in every ICC Women’s Championship series from January 2024.
The CEC also endorsed introduction of a stop clock on a trial basis in men’s ODI and T20I cricket from December 2023 to April 2024. The clock aims to keep a check on the time taken between two overs. With the introduction of stop clock, a 5-run penalty will be imposed third time the bowling team is not ready to bowl the next over within 60 seconds after the completion of the previous over.
In addition, a few other pitch and outfield monitoring regulations were made. As per the changes, the criteria against the pitch assessed has been simplified. A few other changes regarding when a venue could have lost its international status from five demerit points to six demerit points over the time of five years.
