Ireland looking to get Test status by June

Ireland are optimistic about achieving Test status by June later this year. after the International Cricket Council, on Thursday (April 27), put in place a new process for the associate members wishing to become full members.

Speaking at an event in Dublin to announce Turkish Airlines as the new chief sponsor of its men’s senior team, Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom confirmed that Ireland had voted in favour of the new governance changes in the ICC that would see a newly-formed membership committee decide on the matter, provided the applicants meet the pre-decided criteria.

“The decision made by the ICC this week to clear the way forward for new full members to arrive by virtue of receiving merit-based criteria is so important because that speaks directly to what we’ve been arguing over the last few years,” said Deutrom on Thursday. “It’s going to be about 20 to 25 criteria and it’s going to be across governance, administration, cricket structures, development and performance, financial sustainability. Every prospective member has to be able to satisfy all of those criteria. We’ve done a bit of a desktop exercise in looking into it and we are reasonably encouraged by our ability to satisfy those criteria.”

Once an associate member applies for the full membership, the application will be screened by the committee before a recommendation on the same is passed on to the ICC board. A final decision would be likely taken at the ICC annual conference, slated to be held on June 22.

“Once we make that submission it will go through to a brand new constituted membership committee. That membership committee will consider that application and make a recommendation accordingly to the ICC board and to the ICC annual conference, which this year takes place in London, with the AGM happening on June 22nd.

“So, with a fair wind, with us satisfying those criteria – that’s the first hoop to jump through. The second is the membership committee and the third is a decision by the ICC membership. If we manage to hurdle all those barriers then we could be a full member and a Test member by June 22nd this year.”

Additionally, Deutrom is also confident that Ireland will receive an increased amount of funding – regardless of whether they successfully attain full membership or not – under the new revenue model set in place at the Dubai meet.

ICC has decided to set aside a total of $280 million for the associate nations and Deutrom was hopeful of getting a better funding in the next eight-year cycle. “It would be what we hope is a very significant increase in funding levels.”