PCB, Windies chiefs elected to all-powerful ICC ExCo

Pakistan and West Indies Cricket Board chiefs, Najam Sethi and Dave Cameron  were today elected to the all-powerful ICC Executive Committee, which will include new ICC Chairman N Srinivasan.

The ICC Executive Committee will be chaired by Australia's Wally Edwards and will also have England's Giles Clarke.

The duo's election was approved by the ICC Board, under the chairmanship of Srinivasan, during the ICC Annual Conference weekend here.

India, England and Australia have permanent representatives on the five-member committee, while the other two members will be elected from the ICC board on an annual basis.

David Richardson, who received a two-year contract extension as ICC chief executive, will be an ex-officio member of the committee.

The Executive Committee was created as a part of the raft of administrative changes ushered in by the BCCI, ECB and CA, and described by its architects as "the sole recommendation committee on all financial (including ICC distributions and costs), constitutional, personnel (other than event personnel), anti-corruption, ethics, integrity, development and director nominations matters".

The ICC Board noted the significant progress made on the Future Tour Programmes that has been extended through to 2023 and expressed satisfaction that there was now more certainty around long-term scheduling with a reasonable balance between home and away matches for all 10 teams as well as between the three formats.

"The ICC Board agreed with ICC Chief Executives Committee recommendation that members must sign all bilateral agreements through to 2023 before the next ICC meeting, which takes place in October," a release from the ICC said.

The ICC Board approved the composition of various sub-committees, which expectedly did not have any representative from Cricket South Africa.

Clarke will chair the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA), which will also include Edwards, Srinivasan, Nazmul Hassan (Bangladesh) and Jayantha Dharmadasa (Sri Lanka) with Richardson again an ex-officio member.

The Governance Review Committee will be chaired by New Zealand's Martin Snedden and will include Peter Chingoka (Zimbabwe), Hassan (Bangladesh), Sanjay Patel (India) and Imran Khawaja (Singapore) with Srinivasan and Richardson as ex-officio.The ICC Development Committee has also been reconstituted to emphasise the strategic importance of developing the game beyond its traditional boundaries.

The Committee will be chaired by the ICC Chairman and include the three Associate Member representatives of the ICC Board, the three Associate Member representatives on the ICC Chief Executives' Committee and the Affiliate Members' Global Representative. It will also include the Full Member Directors Chingoka (Zimbabwe), Cameron (West Indies) and Snedden (New Zealand) as well as Richardson and ICC Head of Global Development Tim Anderson (both ex-officio).

The ICC Board agreed to give T20I status to the Netherlands and Nepal, both of which qualified for the ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014. This means there are now eight Associate sides with T20I status. The other six are Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Scotland, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) which already have T20I status by virtue of having ODI status.

On integrity issues, the ICC Board received the annual anti-corruption report from Ronnie Flanagan, the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit Chairman, who repeated the need for the ICC to maintain its vigilance in the area of anti-corruption and also sustain the current high levels of education and strategy of prevention.

The ICC Board discussed and agreed on the Terms of Reference for a review of cricket's anti-corruption processes and resources at both international and domestic level. The review group, which is aimed at improving the structures and resources, will be chaired by ICC Chief Executive David Richardson and will also include ECB Chief Executive David Collier, BCCI representative Sundar Raman, James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia Chief Executive, and an independent expert. 

The ICC Board noted with concern the number of bowlers with suspected illegal bowling actions currently playing cricket and noted the recommendations of the ICC Cricket Committee and the CEC to revise processes to encourage umpires and referees to identify suspect bowlers with greater confidence, to use the expertise of the bio-mechanics working in this area to assume a greater role during the assessment process, and to allow for ongoing scrutiny of bowlers once they have been identified under the ICC procedures.

The ICC Board will receive a further update at its next meeting.

It also concurred with the view that international venues must be set up to their maximum possible boundary dimensions, as per the playing conditions, to help maintain an appropriate balance between the bat and the ball.

The ICC Board noted a number of other changes approved by the CEC, which met on Tuesday. The major changes to the ICC playing conditions for international cricket will come into effect from October 1.

They are: A bowler who has spent time off the field in a Test will be allowed to resume bowling after he has either spent the same period of time on the field as he spent off the field, or he has been back on the field for 30 overs, whichever occurs first.

A T20I innings will be scheduled to span 85 minutes, instead of 80 minutes. The trial regulation allowing an 80-over top-up of unsuccessful DRS player reviews will be extended for another 12 months.

The ICC Board also received an update on the encouraging progress in preparation and ticket sales for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which will be staged in Australia and New Zealand from February 14.

New Zealand and Sri Lanka will feature in the opening match in Christchurch, while on the same day Australia will host England in Melbourne, which will also stage the final on March 29.

The ICC Board consists of the nominated representatives of each of the 10 Full Members plus three elected Associate Member representatives. The ICC Chairman, who is a nominee of a Full Member, chairs proceedings, which also include the ICC President and the ICC Chief Executive.