Countries line up for ICC membership (21 Dec 1999)

19 December 1999

Countries line up for ICC membership

Nigeria wants stand-alone status (according to ICC Africa Development Officer Hoosain Ayob) and the Cayman Islands are seeking a promotion from Affiliate Member status to Associate membership.

That is the main news as the December 31 deadline nears for International Cricket Council Membership applications.

Those, along with up to nine potential applications for Affiliate membership mean the ICC's annual June meeting will see its membership continue to grow.

Nigeria is presently part of ICC Associate member West Africa, along with Gambia, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Although I have been frustrated by continual problems with telephone lines getting through to Nigeria, I understand it is to West Africa what Kenya was to East and Central Africa, before it gained individual Associate status.

It is believed to have by far the largest number of clubs in the West African alliance, and more importantly to ICC officials, has a good percentage of indigenous players.

The Cayman Islands would appear a good chance of Associate membership as it was the only Affiliate member invited to the recent Americas meeting in Toronto and again the only Affiliate member guaranteed a start at next year's inaugural Americas nations tournament.

Three countries have applied from Europe, including what is potentially the former Eastern Bloc's first ever member. The other two are not known for long summers, but are reasonably well organised.

Asia's new member is likely to be Oman, which is seeking Affiliate status, leaving Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen as the only Arabian Peninsula countries to fall under the ICC umbrella.

In the East Asia-Pacific ICC Development region, the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga are set to apply for Affiliate membership, while New Caledonia is a possibility.

News from the Americas zone is more scratchy, but Chile is believed to be a possibility.

The ascension of Nigeria and Cayman Islands would mean 28 Associate members - which leads to one question - what is the future of the ICC Trophy beyond Toronto 2001?

'Beyond The Test World' will hopefully answer that in the next edition.

The following is a list of countries (known to me) where there is an organised competition structure who are not present or intending ICC members (this list does not include one-club countries): Russia, Botswana, Mauritius, Seychelles, Afghanistan, Maldives, Indonesia, and British Virgin Islands. There are a stack of one-club countries, or others with no competition structure but providing an accurate up-to-date list is virtually impossible.