Mani reveals cash boost for Associates

Ehsan Mani: 'No game can sustain itself in the long-term if it is only played by ten countries' © Getty Images

Ehsan Mani, the outgoing president of the ICC, has confirmed that more than US$9 million will be invested in the six leading Associate member countries in a bid to raise playing standards up to the next World Cup in 2011.

Speaking exclusively to cricinfo.com in an interview to be published on Friday, ahead of his final week at the helm of world cricket's governing body, Mani highlighted the need for improved standards as a major task facing the organisation. "We are going to be spending a huge amount of money in trying to do this and we need to make sure it works. No game can sustain itself in the long-term if it is only played by ten countries. We're all watching the football World Cup and you can see how football is in more than double the number of countries than the ICC. They have over 240 countries that are part of FIFA.

"That is what we are up against so we have to make sure not only that the game continues to spread and get stronger in the non-traditional countries, but also that the standard of playing is good enough for these countries to challenge the ten (Test playing) countries."

The leading six countries below Test status at present are Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland. An intense playing schedule has been drawn up for each nation before next year's World Cup in the Caribbean, in a bid to make them as competitive as possible. "They're going to get a lot of cricket before the World Cup. The other very important thing is that we leave behind a legacy after the World Cup for these countries to continue to develop. The board has agreed that from this World Cup each of these Associates will get US$500,000 as a special grant.

"Longer-term, we've decided for the 2011 World Cup, the top associates will get US$1 million each. This is just to consolidate the growth of cricket in these countries to make sure they become more professional in their approach," said Mani, whose three-year term as president comes to an end next week, when he is succeeded by Percy Sonn of South Africa.

The news was welcomed by Irish Cricket Union chairman Murray Power. He told the BBC: "The qualifiers for the '07 World Cup got half a million dollars, so this is a doubling of that and obviously any such increase would be very, very welcome indeed."