The application by Saudi Cricket Center (SCC) seeking Associate Membership to the ICC has been unanimously approved. This makes Saudi Arabia the 39th Associate Member of the International Cricket Council.
ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar congratulated the SCC, by saying: “I congratulate Saudi Cricket Centre on becoming an Associate Member of the ICC and hope it will continue to play its positive and active role in promoting and developing the game in its territory.”
The application which has been pending for quite some time now had already been pre-approved by the Development Committee of the ICC in October 2015. This application was followed by an official and full one after prior inspections conducted by the ICC in March this year.
SCC has been an affiliate member of the ICC since 2003. As per the survey conducted in 2014, the SCC has met all the requirements to be recognised as an Associate Member. The organisation has above 4,300 cricketers under it and 80 fully functional and updated cricket facilities.
In another move, the 53-member committee unanimously ratified the suspension of USA Cricket Association and Cricket Association on Nepal. On this, Manohar had some encouraging suggestions for the betterment of cricket in both these nations.
“Both Nepal and the US are important members of the ICC as they have tremendous talent and potential. The ICC, as part of its game and market development strategy, will continue to provide the countries with as much support as possible so that they can put in place good governance and cricket structures,” he said.
He further added that ICC officials and officials of these respective cricket boards would meet later this year to work on plans to increase the popularity and functionality of the sport in their respective countries.
“An ICC delegation will visit Nepal and will meet with the Nepal government and cricket officials, while I will lead an ICC team including Mr Dave Cameron, Mr Giles Clarke, Mr Imran Khawaja and Mr David Peever to the USA to meet with various stakeholders in that market and help them lay the foundation for the effective development of the sport (at grass roots and international level) and implementation of a governance structure that unifies the entire cricket community in the USA,” he added.
The full council meeting ended with an awards ceremony and a thank you to outgoing ICC President Zaheer Abbas.
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