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SLC’s suspension, future of ODI cricket among key talking points at ICC board meeting
Sri Lanka Cricket’s suspension, the future of ODI cricket and a revival of a high-performance programme aimed at the top Associates and some Full Members are all set to be on the agenda at the upcoming ICC board meeting in Ahmedabad.
The quarterly meetings, the last of the year, begin on Saturday with various committees before the ICC board meeting set for Tuesday, two days after the 2023 ODI World Cup final. While some of the big-ticket items have been effectively finalised, such as the revenue distribution model for the 2024-27 cycle of events and cricket’s entry into the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Sri Lanka Cricket’s board suspension
SLC’s suspension last week is set to dominate the ICC board meeting. Possible conditions over the suspension will be debated as well as whether Sri Lanka continue to remain hosts of the men’s under-19 World Cup in January and February.
The ICC’s deputy chair Imran Khwaja is likely to be an influential voice having been engaged to look into potential political interference for a while. He investigated the matter in May during a fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka.
The future of ODI cricket
Two days after the ODI World Cup final, possible discussions around the future of the 50-overs format are on the cards. There will be at least two boards pushing for the revival of the recently-scrapped 13-team ODI Super League. With a new qualification pathway already approved for a 14-team 2027 men’s ODI World Cup, the Super League, if it does return, could only do so from 2028.
Zimbabwe – co-hosts of the 2027 ODI World Cup along with South Africa and Namibia – are advocating for an analysis to be conducted over the current World Cup to gauge its global popularity.
“This World Cup came at the same time as the rugby World Cup, so it would be a good opportunity to compare the audience and measure our global impact as a sport,” Zimbabwe Cricket chair Tavengwa Mukuhlani said.
“It felt like the Rugby World Cup was more popular, especially in countries where both sports are popular. I don’t think the problem is with the ODI format… there aren’t enough teams in the World Cup, even 14 isn’t enough. And there won’t be context without the Super League.
“We need ODI cricket, we can’t afford to not have it. It is still a money-maker for us and many countries.”
High-performance programme revival
The ICC’s high-performance programme is set for a revival, having been scrapped late last decade, after running for 15 years. The programme was aimed at top Associate nations and included player development pathways and specialised administrative structures to help professionalise those deemed close to Full Member status.
The new programme, in a point of difference, will involve Full Members Ireland, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and possibly others. It has been resurrected as the ICC look to establish development programmes through funds from its next four-year commercial cycle. Funding from the programme is hoped to encourage more fixtures between these countries, including A tours and women’s cricket matches.
An as yet unspecified amount has been mooted, taken from the ICC’s overall revenues, to be divided among these boards. But specific details, including the countries involved and total funding allocated, will be revealed at the meeting.
Funding from revenue distribution model set aside to create reserves
Some of the funds allocated to members in the new distribution model will be diverted into a retained surplus fund totalling US$100 million a year, which will be invested and distributed back to members at a later time.
The interest accrued will be distributed according to the contribution by the member in what is seen as a prudent financial measure with uncertainty over what type of media rights deal will be struck for the cycle of 2028-31. Full Members will contribute US$ 88.8 million to this fund – of which the BCCI will put US$ 38.5 million – annually and the Associates US$11.2 million.
But not everyone is satisfied with the arrangement. With plans to build a cricket stadium in Dublin, Ireland want to receive its full US$18 million a year allocation. Around US$3 million a year of their funding is earmarked for the surplus fund and so too Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
“We need funding to do that [build infrastructure],” Cricket Ireland high-performance director Richard Holdsworth said. “To withhold what it looks like to be about US$12 million over four years maybe that’s for the members to make the right decisions as to whether they stick money into reserves or spend it all now.
“For us, we’ve got a lot of things to invest in and we need to do that now. We can’t wait four years.”
Cricket at the Olympics
After returning to the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games recently, T20 cricket was last month officially confirmed as an Olympic sport for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. The board will formalise cricket’s inclusion and there is expected to be discussion over possible qualification pathways.
Some boards hope that more than six teams per gender can be included in subsequent Olympics after Los Angeles.
Gede Priandana, Indonesia’s 28-year-old right-arm quick bowler, has become the first to pick up five wickets in an over in an international T20I match (where ball-by-ball data is available), achieving the feat in the first T20I against Cambodia in Bali on Tuesday. He is the first man or woman to achieve the feat.
Indonesia had the upper hand in the game, but Cambodia were not out of it yet at the end of the 15th over of the chase of 168, the scorecard reading 106 for 5. Bowling his first over, Priandana struck off the first three balls to record a hat-trick, sending back Shah Abrar Hussain, Nirmaljit Singh and Chanthoeun Rathanak. A dot ball followed, after which Priandana got rid of Mongdara Sok and Pel Vennak to finish off the match, Cambodia getting just one run in the over, a wide between the last two wickets, to end 60 runs short.
Priandana had earlier scored 6 in 11 balls opening the innings alongside Dharma Kesuma, the wicketkeeper-batter, who led the batting show for Indonesia with an unbeaten 110 in 68 balls with eight fours and six sixes.
The feat has, however, been achieved twice before in men’s T20s. Al Amin Hossain took five wickets in an over against Abahani Limited playing for UCB-BCB XI in the Victory Day T20 Cup in 2013-14. The other was when Karnataka’s Abhimanyu Mithun dismissed five Haryana batters in the semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019-20.
While this is the first time a bowler has taken five in an over in an international game, there have been 14 instances of a bowler taking four in an over before today. The most famous of these was when Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga famously took four in four balls in the third over of a T20Is against New Zealand in 2019.
[Cricinfo]
Australia captain Pat Cummins won’t feature again in the Ashes and there is uncertainty about whether he will be available for the T20 World Cup in February, with selectors and medical staff unwilling to take any risks over his long-term health.
When Australia’s squad for the MCG Boxing Day Test was named on Tuesday morning, it was confirmed, as Cummins had flagged after Adelaide, that he would sit out the match. Head coach Andrew McDonald said a few hours later that Cummins’ series was over after one appearance, which helped secure the Ashes.
Cummins was diagnosed with a lumbar stress reaction after the tour of the West Indies, but following an aggressive rehab programme, he bowled brilliantly in Adelaide where he claimed six wickets as Australia won by 82 runs.
“He’s pulled up fine,” McDonald said. “He won’t play any part in the rest of the series and that was a discussion that we had a long time out around his return.
“We were taking on some risk and people that reported on that would understand the risk associated with that rebuild. We’ve now won the series and that was the goal. So, to position him for further risk and jeopardise him long-term is not something that we want to do and Pat’s really comfortable with that.”
Even though Cummins’ Ashes has been limited to one match, McDonald said it had been a huge effort from all involved to even get to that point.
“If he had any setback in the build as well, we would have shut him down straight away,” he said. “Everything went really smoothly and full credit to him [and] the medical team. To navigate through that risk profile to get him back and take six wickets in that game and nail the Ashes series was incredibly pleasing for everyone associated with that.
“If you look at the… decision sort of four months ago and the journey he went on to get to where he was to be able to play the third Ashes Test when people thought it was nigh on impossible, that took an incredible amount of work from our SSSM [Sports Science Sports Medicine] team.”
McDonald said that would be part of a discussion with the other selectors later on Tuesday about the T20 World Cup squad, which is due to be named soon, and indicated that further medical advice would be taken around Cummins’ participation.
Cummins has not played a T20I for Australia since mid-2024 at the previous World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA. Shortly after the upcoming edition takes place in India and Sri Lanka, IPL 2026 will begin, where Cummins is due to captain Surisers Hyderabad (SRH).
“That’ll be an assessment,” McDonald said of Cummins’ T20 World Cup chances. “I’m assuming he’ll have a check-in scan at some point and gather more information around where his back is at… looking forward to the World Cup, whether he’ll be there or not. I can’t really say. It’s quite grey at the moment. We’re hopeful.”
Cummins’ injury along with the one suffered by Josh Hazlewood, who won’t feature at all in the Ashes, and Sean Abbott, who was ruled out before the first Test, has tested the depth of Australia’s pace resources.
Mitchell Starc, led the attack superbly in the first two Tests before producing a series-clinching three wickets on the final day in Adelaide and has already stated his desire to continue through all five matches.
“Starc’s amazing, he’s pulled up fine, I don’t know how he does it,” McDonald said. “I walked into the physio room the other day and sort of just went through the body count and how we’re going. I won’t use exactly what [the physio] said, but he just said he [Starc] is a freak.
“He keeps running in, presenting the pace that he does. There’s a lot to be learned around preparing yourself and targeting the right matches at the right time. He’s given up a lot of IPL opportunities and you’re seeing a player that wants to play Test cricket and he’s still at his best. It’s an incredible story. Let’s hope it continues for a long time yet but he’s a freak, end of story.”
Australia have added Jhye Richardson to their pace options for the fourth Test at the MCG following his recovery from shoulder surgery. Richardson last played a Test during the 2021-22 Ashes.
[Cricinfo]
United States President Donald Trump has issued a new warning to Nicolas Maduro, saying “it would be smart” for the Venezuelan leader to step down, as Washington escalates a pressure campaign that has drawn sharp rebukes from Russia and China.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Trump suggested he was prepared to further ratchet up the tensions after four months of mounting pressure on Caracas.
When asked if the goal was to force Maduro from power, Trump told reporters: “Well, I think it probably would… That’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it’d be smart for him to do that. But again, we’re gonna find out.”
“If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough,” the US leader added.
Trump levied his latest threat as the US Coast Guard continued for a second day to chase a third oil tanker that it described as part of a “dark fleet” that Venezuela uses to evade US sanctions.
“It’s moving along, and we’ll end up getting it,” Trump said.
The US president also promised to keep the two ships two ships and the nearly 4 million barrels of Venezuelan oil the coastguard has seized so far.
“Maybe we’ll sell it. Maybe we’ll keep it. Maybe we will use it in the strategic reserves,” he said. “We’re keeping it. We’re keeping the ships also.”
[Aljazeera]
Indonesia’s Gede Priandana becomes first to pick five wickets in an over in T20Is
Ashes over for Cummins, uncertainty over T20 World Cup too
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