ICC confirms Dubai switch over Chingoka

The ICC has confirmed that its annual meeting will be moved from Lord's for the first time in its 99-year history and relocated to Dubai. The switch, revealed by Cricinfo last week, was prompted by uncertainty over whether Zimbabwe's chairman Peter Chingoka would be able to obtain a UK visa in time as the ICC wanted all representatives to attend.

"The annual conference week was originally scheduled to be held at Lord's in London," said an ICC statement on Monday. "The decision to move the location to the United Arab Emirates was made by the ICC board on the basis that all delegates required to attend would be permitted entry." The conference week will take place between June 29 and July 4.

There was confusion last week as to whether Chingoka's visa application to enter the UK been obstructed or if he had actually applied at all. It appears that in fact he had withdrawn his latest application in order to use his passport to travel to India.

The board's president-elect, David Morgan, said on Saturday that Chingoka's visa had neither been granted nor refused. He added: "The ICC at its last board meeting took a decision that if it wasn't certain that Mr Chingoka was going to be in possession of a visa by April 15 then the conference week would be relocated from here [Lord's] to Dubai."