Dubai: The International Cricket Council is all set to scrap the controversial constitutional amendments, which gave executive clout and financial power to India, Australia and England, with its Shashank Manohar-led Board recommending complete overhaul of the current power structure here on Thursday.
In its first meeting of 2016 after Manohar took over as ICC Chairman, the world body's Board agreed that the current system, put in place by controversial former head N Srinivasan, needed to be done away with.
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"As such, the Board unanimously agreed to propose to the Full Council that a new Chairman should be elected by the Board for a two-year term commencing at the June 2016 Board meeting through a secret balloting process overseen by the ICC's independent Audit Committee Chairman," the ICC said in a statement.
"While in the office, the ICC Chairman will not be allowed to hold any post with any Member Board and may be re-elected at the expiry of the term with a maximum limit of three terms."
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"To qualify to contest the election, it has been agreed that all nominees must be either a past or present ICC Board director and should have the support of at least two Full Member directors."
In fact the Manohar-led ICC suggested complete review of the constitutional changes made in 2014 by Srinivasan which gave enormous powers to the 'Big Three' with bulk of the revenue share going their way.
"The Board agreed to approve changes to the terms of reference of the Finance & Commercial Affairs Committee and Executive Committee so as to remove the permanent positions for the nominees of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on these committees, and to allow fair access to membership for all Full and Associate Member directors, with the sole criteria being the skill, competence and experience of the relevant director.
"To that end, the present composition of the committees will be reviewed in their entirety in June 2016," an ICC release stated.
The ICC Board approved an increased operational budget for the event in order to ensure that no stone was left unturned in ensuring that the ICC and the BCCI could achieve their joint objectives of making this event the biggest and best cricket event ever held.
Following last month's elections, Sri Lanka Cricket's membership of the ICC has been reinstated in full, meaning that SLC is now entitled to full funding and attendance and voting rights at the Board and Full Council.
The Board received a detailed update on cricket activities in the USA, and approved a strategic planning framework that has been developed after wide-ranging consultation with the USA cricket community.
In line with this strategy, a number of development and high performance activities were approved to take place during 2016 pursuant to the 'special project' budget that the ICC has set aside to support the development of cricket in the USA.
In this respect, the ICC noted that the USA Cricket Association remains suspended by the ICC and encouraged it to work more closely with ICC management to try to unify the cricketing community in the USA.
The Board approved a qualification pathway for future ICC U19 Cricket World Cups. It was agreed that the 10 Test playing countries and the highest-placed Associate team from the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2016 will qualify directly for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2018, which will be staged in New Zealand from 12 January-4 February 2018.
The remaining five sides will qualify through the regional qualifying tournaments.
The Board also received updates on matters relating to anti-doping and international men's and women's cricket.
