ICC Annual Conference

ICC Media Release June 25, 1999

The Chief Executive of the ICC Mr David Richards today released details of matters decided at the Annual Conference held at Lord's on 22 - 24 June 1999.

• Safety of Players & Umpires - the Executive Board views with serious concern the recent incidences of crowd invasions of grounds and disruption to matches. The safety of players and umpires is of paramount importance.
  The following policy has been adopted:
  "No spectator has a right to enter the field during play and until the players and umpires have left the field after play. No spectator has a right to throw any object at anyone, be they players, umpires or fellow spectators."
  Countries will have the opportunity - as a matter of priority - to take whatever corrective measures are necessary within the framework of local laws.
  However, sanctions in the form of removal of a ground's approval to hold International cricket are to be seriously considered together with other measures to improve safety. Progress will be reviewed at the September Board meeting.
• Code of Conduct Commission - the Chairman of the Commission, Lord Griffiths, has received the full report of the Inquiry in Australia and has that under review. The Indian Board will be asked to provide the report from their Inquiry two years ago and this will also be reviewed by the Commission Chairman. The nine man panel was also confirmed in office.
• Bangladesh Cricket Board- their application to be the tenth Test nation was reviewed. Countries were encouraged by the satisfactory progress of cricket in Bangladesh, including the team's two victories in the recent World Cup. Saber Chowdhury (President BCB) was congratulated on the staging of the highly successful Wills International Cup in Dhaka last October. Countries have committed to provide Bangladesh with an intense program of 3 and 4 day 'A' and national team cricket over the next 9 months to assist in their high performance development. The application will be further reviewed at next year's Conference.
• Playing Conditions - the Duckworth-Lewis method for calculating target scores in interrupted One Day Internationals will be adopted as part of the standard playing conditions with effect from 1st September 1999. Existing conditions will not be reviewed until 2001.
• Advisory Panel on Illegal Deliveries - arising from concern about the need for a standard approach to the matter of dealing with throwing, the 9 man Panel will meet within the next 2 months - details tba.
• National Grid Panel - there are 4 new umpires on the National Grid Panel
  - A Jayaprakesh from India, Riazuddin and A Zaidi from Pakistan and B Cooray from Sri Lanka. Former Pakistan Captain Intikhab Alam and countryman N Ali, together with Brian Hastings of New Zealand are new faces on the Referees Panel.
• New Members - Germany was upgraded to Associate member status, while Cyprus, Morocco and Qatar were admitted as Affiliate Members, bringing the total number of member countries to 56.
• Under 19 World Cup - Sri Lanka was confirmed as the host nation, with the 16 team event taking place in January 2000. The 7 Associate Member nations will be selected on a regional basis - the top 2 from the European tournament to be held in Ireland next month; the top 2 from the Asian Cricket Council tournament in Singapore in early July; 2 from Africa (to be determined) and one from the Americas.
• 2001 ICC Trophy - this 26 nation event will be held in Toronto in July 2001 and will be played in 2 divisions. The number of countries qualifying for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa will be decided at next year's Conference.
• Cricket Development - the ambitious Development Program received a further boost with approval of a £1.35m budget for the current financial year. Andrew Eade has been appointed as Development Officer for the East Asia-Pacific region, working from the offices of ACB in Melbourne. The next development conference will be in Nairobi in early August.

© ICC