ICC aims to expand to 100 countries

The International Cricket Council hopes that its membership will exceed 100 countries by the end of 2005. The issue of expansion was discussed at a two-day seminar, hosted by the Asian Cricket Council, in Lahore.

"Cricket is a unique sport and the ICC aims to develop this game into a truly global sport," said the president, Ehsan Mani. "As well as increasing the number of playing countries, the ICC is targeting an improvement in the playing standards of its associate and affiliate members." At present the ICC is made up of 89 countries: 10 full, Test-playing members, 27 associates and 52 affiliates.

Kenya, who last year reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, hope to become the eleventh of the full members, although their application has been deferred until 2005, in the wake of Bangladesh's struggles since their elevation to Test status in November 2000. "Bangladesh has faced a challenging time since its entry into Test cricket," admitted Mani. "The ICC has been working very closely with the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the ACC to assist in the high performance development of the game in Bangladesh."

The ICC predicts that it will spend US$100m (£55.9m) on the development of cricket by 2007, half of which will go to Asian countries. But, as Matthew Kennedy, the ICC's development manager says, it is the growth of the game in non-cricket-orientated countries that is of particular interest. "The passion of cricket can be seen in Samoa, Indonesia, the beaches of Croatia, in war-ravaged Afghanistan and in villages of Papua New Guinea," he said."It is a success of the development and globalisation program."