By Donald Duff in Barbados
After a week of meetings of the various committees, affiliates and associate members that make up the International Cricket Council (ICC) the annual conference of the organization will come to an end today at the Hilton Hotel in Barbados.
Yesterday morning there were meetings in the Peninsula Room of the Hilton of the Finance and Commercial Affairs committee from 9am to 12.30pm and the ICC Board which met from 1.30pm to 5.30pm yesterday.
As is the norm, none of the recommendations that have been made at these meetings will be publicised until 2pm this afternoon when a press conference is scheduled.
In what can be viewed as a deviation from its policy, the ICC on Wednesday confirmed former Pakistan cricket captain Zaheer Abbas as president of the ICC while Serbia was made an affiliate member of the ICC.
The post of president of the ICC is considered a ceremonial one.
One of the decisions that will be announced today is the status of the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA).
The USACA is being challenged by a rival organization, the American Cricket Federation (AFC) which forced the ICC to send in a Task Force earlier this year to look at the governance of the sport.
The Task Force which was headed by the ICC’s Chief Executive Dave Richardson and Tim Anderson the head of the ICC Global Development arm submitted their report earlier this week and a ruling is expected today.
“We had a review group that went into the USA and talked to a lot of stakeholders and that review group will be providing its report to our Executive Committee and the Board this week and from that the Board will decide what course of action it wants to take if any, “Anderson told Stabroek Sports earlier this week.
The ICC is also expected to rule on proposed changes to the playing conditions of the One day game based on recommendations of the Cricket Committee.
There have been three changes recommended.
There have also been discussions about the possibility of playing day and night test cricket matches in an effort to make the game more attractive to the viewers.
More than 50 high ranking officials from the cricket countries around the world are participating in the historic first ever conference to be staged in the Caribbean.
