ICC meetings address ICC Champions Trophy venues, television rights and Zimbabwe

A series of International Cricket Council (ICC) meetings concluded in Karachi today with an Executive Board meeting at which the venues for the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 were confirmed.

Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi will host matches in the 10-team tournament which will start on 7 October and finish with the final in Mumbai on 5 November. The seedings for the event will be determined by the LG ICC ODI Rankings on 1 April 2006 and the match schedule will be determined after this date.

This was the only issue discussed by the Executive Board. There will be a full meeting of the Board in Dubai in March.

ICC President Ehsan Mani said that a separate meeting on the topic of television rights in India had been very beneficial.

"It has been very helpful to draw together all of our Full Members and many of the major TV rights holders in international cricket to discuss this important issue," said Mr Mani.

"We now have a much better understanding of the potential implications of the recent government directive regarding sports television rights in India.

"It was very important to open a wide-reaching dialogue on this issue and we will continue to monitor the issue along with all of these important stakeholders."

The meeting involved discussions between representatives from all ICC Full Member countries and several major broadcasters and media rights holders.

CSI Octagon, Doordarshan, ESPN Star Sports, Sony Entertainment Television, TEN Sports, TWI and Zee were all given an opportunity to present to the meeting.

These presentations were followed by a group discussion involving all of the delegates.

While in Karachi ICC President Ehsan Mani and ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed also had a private meeting with Peter Chingoka, the Chairman of the newly-appointed Interim Committee responsible for the affairs of Zimbabwe Cricket.

In this meeting Mr Mani and Mr Speed highlighted a number of areas of concern which the ICC expects the Interim Committee to urgently resolve in an open and transparent manner.

These include addressing allegations of financial mismanagement; ensuring disputes between players and the board are effectively addressed; and providing certainty for other ICC members that the strongest possible Zimbabwe cricket team will be able to fulfill future international commitments, especially the forthcoming tour of the West Indies due to commence in April.

Attendees at the television rights meeting and the Executive Board meeting comprised:

ICC representatives:

Ehsan Mani (President), Percy Sonn (Vice-President), Malcolm Speed (Chief Executive)

Full Member representatives:

Creagh O'Connor (Australia), David Morgan (England), Sharad Pawar (India), Sir John Anderson (New Zealand), Shaharyar Khan (Pakistan), Duleep Mendis (Sri Lanka), Ray Mali (South Africa), Tony Marshall (West Indies), Peter Chingoka (Zimbabwe).

HRH Tunku Imran (Malaysia and Chairman of Associates) was also present to represent the ICC Associate Members.