ICC allows one neutral umpire for Test series

ISLAMABAD: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has allowed one neutral on-field umpire for the Test series while the second one will be from the host county, breaking away with the Covid-19 rules where the host countries’ umpires were allowed to conduct Test matches.

The ICC Board’s meeting held in Dubai and CEC Committee were updated on the performance of umpires during the Covid-19 times.

The committee acknowledged that the performance of home umpires was strong and had not affected games. The use of home umpires had also led to 12 members of the International Panel umpires making their Test match debut.

In line with a previous recommendation from the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee, the CEC agreed that more neutral match officials should be utilised as travel restrictions are lifted while building on the success of the use of home umpires.

From each Test match and series starting with the cricketing season 2022-23, the match referee, TV Umpire and one field umpire will be from a neutral country. While the host Test-playing country will have the option of naming one field umpire as well as 4th umpire.

However, for the ODIs and T20 International series, the entire panel will be picked from the host nation country-meaning match referee, on-field, TV and 4th umpire will be from the host nation.

The qualification pathway for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 was confirmed with 12 teams qualifying automatically for the event. The top eight teams from the 2022 event will be joined by the two host Members, West Indies and the USA plus the next highest-ranked teams on the MRF ICC Men’s T20 rankings table as of 14 November 2022. If West Indies finish in the top eight in Australia later this year, three teams will progress based on rankings and if outside the top eight two teams will qualify from the rankings table.

The remaining eight spots will be decided through a regional qualification process with Africa, Asia and Europe each qualifying two teams and Americas and EAP one each.

The qualification pathway for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 was agreed upon. Eight teams will gain automatic qualification into the event, comprising the top three teams from each group of the 2023 event plus the host (if not in the six) and the next highest-ranked teams on the MRF ICC Women’s T20 rankings table at a pre-determined date. The remaining two teams will be identified through the Women’s T20 World Cup global qualifier.

The qualification pathway for the eight-team ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup was also confirmed. The yet-to-be-determined host of the event will automatically qualify along with the next five highest-placed teams at the end of the 22-25 ICC Women’s Championship (IWC). The remaining two teams will be identified through a global qualifying event between the four bottom-placed teams in the IWC plus an additional two teams from the ODI rankings.

South Africa was confirmed as the host of the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, to be staged in January next year as a 16-team, 41-match event.

The ICC Board received an update from the Afghanistan Working Group which recommended Mirwais Ashraf as the ACB’s appointed representative to the Board. The Working Group advised the Board that the ICC was continuing to support the Afghanistan men’s team to play international cricket while monitoring the governance of the sport in the country including the development of the women’s game.

The ACB confirmed its continued commitment to developing women’s cricket and will submit a full action plan and budget to do so to the Working Group which will continue to monitor the situation and receive regular updates on its progress.