Outcomes of ICC Chief Executives' Committee meeting

Proposals for a Twenty20 World Championship as early as September 2007 and a revamped ICC Champions Trophy featuring just the top eight teams in world cricket from 2008 onwards were endorsed by the ICC Chief Executives' Committee (CEC) in Dubai today.

These recommendations will now be taken to the ICC Executive Board's March meeting in Dubai for it to make the final decision on whether or not to proceed with these formats.

These recommendations are part of the overall package of ICC events to be included in the international cricketing calendar after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. The package also includes the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 and 2015; the Women's World Cup in 2009 and 2013; and the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014.

ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, said that the endorsement of the CEC now cleared the way for the ICC Board to make the final decision on these proposals.

"The ICC has worked hard to provide its members with flexibility in the scheduling of international cricket and these formats have been proposed with the aim of striking a good balance with the Future Tours Program (FTP) of bi-lateral series between nations," said Mr Speed.

"These proposals now endorsed by the CEC provide the Executive Board with the option of including Twenty20 cricket on the international cricket calendar and revamping the ICC Champions Trophy to provide a shorter, sharper event. Both formats could be played in a number of countries at different times of the year to fit in with the overall demands on international teams."

The endorsement of the proposals for future ICC events also means that the process of replacing the current five-year Future Tours Program (FTP) with a six-year program can continue.

"With greater certainty regarding the place of ICC events in the calendar, the ICC and its members are now in a position to continue their discussions over the introduction of a six-year program," said Mr Speed.

A revised draft of a potential six-year FTP will now be the focus of the second ICC Scheduling Summit which will take place in Dubai tomorrow.

The meeting also agreed with ICC Management's recommendation that the trial of the `super-sub' playing condition should be discontinued. This recommendation will now go to the Executive Board for ratification.

ICC General Manager - Cricket, David Richardson, said that the playing condition was not achieving what it set out to deliver.

"The intention of Sunil Gavaskar and the panel of former players on the ICC Cricket Committee which recommended the trial of this playing condition was to encourage teams to make greater use of all-rounders in the ODI game.

"In practice, teams have elected to nominate a specialist player as the substitute and this is placing undue importance on winning the toss.

"There is no desire to create a situation where 12 players are used to do the job of 11 so we did not support the alternate view of allowing substitutes to be nominated after the toss. The proposal that the playing condition be discontinued has been endorsed by the CEC and will now go to the Board for ratification."

If the Board accepts this recommendation, the `super-sub' playing condition will no longer apply to series that start after 21 March 2006.

The CEC recommended that the other trial ODI playing condition which deals with fielding restrictions should be deferred to the April meeting of the ICC Cricket Committee, which is chaired by Mr Gavaskar, before a final decision is made on its future.

The CEC meeting was chaired by ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, and attended by ICC President, Ehsan Mani, ICC Cricket Committee Chairman, Sunil Gavaskar, and ICC General Manager - Cricket, David Richardson. Mr Richardson will lead the discussions during the ICC Scheduling Summit.

The following delegates attended the CEC meeting: