ICC to discuss Woolf recommendations

The ICC's Chief Executives Committee (CEC) is meeting in Dubai over the next two days and its responses to the Woolf Report will be the first indicator as to how far the 65 recommendations made by the Lord Woolf-led independent governance review on the ICC, are likely to go.

The Woolf Report had recommended a complete overhaul of the ICC's administrative structure, its voting rights and the make-up of its powerful Executive Board suggesting, among other things, the appointment of three independent directors.

The ICC said that the CEC meeting would give the executive representatives of the Full Member nations, an opportunity to "consider and express their views on the report and its recommendations."

So far, the BCCI has rejected the report, Cricket Australia has said it would be "silly" to throw the report out and the PCB has called for a consensus with the new PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf saying it wasn't "that bad." The CEC consists of the ten key Board representatives of the Full Member nations, and three Associate representatives. Major Associate nations have backed the Woolf recommendations.

The consensus from the CEC meeting on Tuesday will give out a clear signal as to how the ICC's Executive Board, which meets early next month, will handle the Woolf Report and which of its 65 radical recommendations have a chance of being followed through.

One of the other more important decisions to emerge from the CEC meeting tomorrow will be to discuss the strategic management of the "volume and scheduling" of Twenty20 cricket. ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat said, "Cricket is uniquely fortunate to boast three exciting formats at international level and we have recognised the inevitable need to strategically manage these formats for each to be successful in the long run."

The CEC discussions, Lorgat said, intended to "stimulate thinking on the volume and scheduling of Twenty20 cricket, its role in developing the game further and the implications for cricket as a whole."

The CEC is also expected to make a suggestion to the Executive Board of a candidate to head the ICC's cricket committee following the completion of Clive Lloyd's three-year-term as chairman.

The other issues to be discussed at the two-day meeting center around the possibility of the ICC Test and ODI rankings as the qualification criteria for ICC events along with promotion and relegation, the possibility of cricket's participation in multi-sport games like the Olympics and disability cricket.

The CEC will also study a presentation made about the international growth and integration of the women's game and to meet its target of 1 million new participants from Associate and Affiliate countries by 2015.