ICC to Grants 104-member Countries the T20I Status
Updated - 26 Apr 2018, 07:05 PM
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that the Twenty20 International status will be granted to all the 104-member countries. The Members include both Men and Women teams at the topmost level.
Currently, there are only 18 teams with T20I status. The 18 teams include the 12 full-time members as well as countries like Scotland, Netherlands, Hong Kong, UAE, Oman, and Nepal.
ICC is going to come hard on ball tampering and sledging incidents.
The world governing body’s CEO Dave Richardson confirmed the news in a press conference which was held in Kolkata.
Dave also mentioned that a global ranking system will be launched for the shortest format of the game.
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Meanwhile, ICC also confirmed that they will come down hard on the cases of ball-tampering and sledging in the foreseeable future.
We recently noticed that Steven Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft were heavily punished for their respective roles in the ball-tampering scandal.
In such a contrast, Smith and Warner were banned for a period of one year whereas, Bancroft received a nine-month ban.
The governing body generally impose fine which includes a reduction in the match fees of the players. Dave believes that it is not working at the moment.
“Stricter and heavier transactions for ball tampering and using abusive language, sledging, dissent. We want penalties in place. Fines are not proving to be the answer. The cricket committee will come back with plans,” Richardson said in the press conference.
Meanwhile, the next season of the Champions Trophy is going to be scrapped. Richardson said that the 2021 Champions Trophy will be replaced by World Twenty20.
“In all likelihood, the 2021 Champions Trophy will be a World T20,” Dave remarked.
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Richardson also opened on the T20 leagues competing with the International matches.
ICC CEO added, “There are occasions where they [T20 leagues] are competing with international bilateral series. We need to look at our regulations to see how we can allow that to happen.”
The ICC is trying to evolve the game and thus have taken the step to give T20I status to all of its members.
It is a welcome sign but the governing body will have to make sure that they are organizing the matches on regular basis especially for the emerging nations.
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ICC India National Cricket Team