Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has opened the doors for more associate and affiliate countries to take part in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament from 2014.
The ICC Executive Board meeting held in Dubai confirmed the Chief Executive Committee's recommendation to increase the number of participants from 12 to 16 for the 2014 edition to be held in Bangladesh.
Announcing the decision at a press conference at the ICC Headquarters yesterday, Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: "The board's decision to increase the number of participating teams must be comforting to all the associate and affiliate countries. It provides them with a greater chance of competing on the global stage. So effectively we will see six teams coming from the 95 other countries into the global event."
UAE venue for qualifiers
The board meeting also confirmed UAE as the venue for the ICC World Twenty20 2014 qualifiers. "UAE, by successfully staging the Twenty20 World Cup qualifiers this year, has proved that it will be the ideal venue for the next edition of Twenty World Cup qualifiers too. The qualifiers will be held in UAE during October 2013," Lorgat said.
Lorgat also announced that Bangladesh have confirmed their tour to Pakistan. "They will be playing a One Day International and a Twenty20 match towards the end of this month.
"We will now receive from the PCB the security plan and decisions will be based on it. We all know that safety and security is the fundamental issue. It is absolutely not negotiable but we are confident that in some way or another we will be able to make some progress with getting cricket back into Pakistan."
The ICC Executive Board has confirmed a constitutional amendment that will redefine the role of its president and create a new post of a non-voting board chairman. If the amendment is approved by the ICC's general body, the ICC's presidency will become a rotational one-year term, starting 2014, and the post of vice-president will cease to exist.
Balance of formats
Until the president's role has been confirmed, the joint nomination of the Bangladesh Cricket Board and Pakistan Cricket Board for the role of vice-president 2012-14 was deferred until the amended articles have been considered by the ICC Annual Conference.
To maintain the balance of all formats of the game, the board also suggested that three additional Twenty20 Internationals may be played in the ICC World Twenty20 year, provided there is a corresponding reduction in the maximum number of permitted One Day Internationals, which is currently 12 per full member nation.
