ICC to discuss enforcing sterner regulations on emerging leagues

The points system and playing conditions for the World Test Championship is another matter on table for the meeting on Tuesday, October 16.

The ICC suspicious about the functioning of leagues like T10 | Getty

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will discuss imposing tougher sanctions on the various T20 or T10 leagues around the world, in its meeting on Tuesday, October 16. 

The game's world governing body is concerned about the threat of corruption, which these competitions seem invariably vulnerable to. Many leagues have been mushroomed with an ambition to have the similar financial impact and clout that Indian Premier League(IPL) enjoys, but that has never really transpired in reality. 

Although leagues like BBL in Australia, Pakistan's PSL, Caribbean Premier League(CPL) have been successful, other tournaments like the Global T20 Canada League as well as Afghanistan's APL and the upcoming UAE T20x, the T10 competitions aren't necessarily safe and immune from any off-field illegal happenings. 

“One of the things we will be talking about in our meeting next week is around regulations and sanctioning of events and also the release of players (for leagues),” Geoff Allardice, ICC general manager of cricket, acknowledged ahead of the all-important meeting, “So you look at all of the documentation and the ownership structures and how the league is going to be funded and all these types of things and then you provide approval.” 

“It’s not just going to be an open door for any promoter to come in," he added, "I think it will be a bit harder to get sanctions in the future and any tournament would need both the support of the home country and the ICC.”

The other highly substantial matter that is to be discussed at the 4-day meet, will be the playing conditions during the inaugural World Test Champions which begins with the Ashes 2019 after the World Cup next year. 

A BCCI source was quoted saying, “Points structure for the Test Championships needs to be put in place. Another issue will be cricket’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics which was also discussed in the last meeting.”

This will be the maiden occasion when ICC’s first independent female director, Indra Nooyi will be attending the meeting. India will be represented by BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary after CEO Rahul Johri had to pull out because of the allegations of sexual harassment charged against him. 

(Inputs from PTI)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 16 Oct, 2018

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