African trio eye ICC status

THREE nations, Burkina Faso, Mauritius and Burundi, are preparing to apply for Associate membership of the International Cricket Council later this year while the United States’ federation will remain under compliance scrutiny, it was announced last week.

The countries aim to submit their applications to the ICC’s membership committee ahead of the December deadline.

According to BBC Sport, they were hopeful of being considered at this year’s ICC Annual General Meeting, but progress was delayed due to “various administrative queries” raised by the cricket governing body.

At the recent AGM in Singapore, the ICC increased its total membership to 110 by awarding Associate status to Zambia and Timor-Leste.

Zambia, who were expelled in 2021 due to governance issues, have now been readmitted following improvements in their administration.

The ICC also confirmed that USA Cricket will “remain on notice” because of ongoing concerns around membership compliance. A suspension had been considered, which would have affected funding and barred both the men’s and women’s teams from ICC events.

BBC Sport claim they has seen evidence that five of the eight governance, finance and administrative issues raised by the ICC have been addressed.

The ICC has chosen to give USA Cricket more time to meet the remaining requirements but stated it “reserve the right to take such actions as it deems appropriate”.

One major issue is USA Cricket’s need to meet the criteria set by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee for National Governing Body (NGB) status, a requirement for the sport to be included at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. “USA Cricket is required to undertake comprehensive governance reforms, including but not limited to completing free and fair elections within a three-month period,” said an ICC statement.

USA Cricket were placed on notice at the ICC’s 2024 AGM in Sri Lanka for “non-compliance with ICC membership criteria”. Cricket Chile were also placed on notice at the time but have since resolved the governance issues to the ICC’s satisfaction. – insidethegames.com/Sports Reporter