By Mehr Jan<\/p>\n
The International Cricket Council (ICC) rolled out a slate of key announcements following its 2025 Annual Conference in Singapore, with one standout update shedding light on a long-anticipated initiative: the formal support framework for displaced Afghan women cricketers.<\/p>\n
In a landmark move underscoring the ICC\u2019s commitment to inclusivity, the governing body confirmed that exiled women players of Afghan origin will now be given entry points to elite pathways\u2014on both global and domestic stages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This includes engagement in ICC flagship events like the ICC Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup 2025 and next year\u2019s T20 World Cup in England. The players will also benefit from access to high-performance training and domestic playing opportunities under the new support structure.<\/p>\n
The initiative is being steered by ICC Deputy Chair Imran Khwaja and is backed by a coalition of major cricketing nations. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and Cricket Australia (CA) have partnered with the ICC to move the plan forward.<\/p>\n
WTC Finals Land in England; Two New Members Welcomed<\/p>\n
Beyond the women\u2019s cricket update, the ICC also revealed that England will continue to host the World Test Championship Finals through the next three editions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ECB has been awarded the rights after successfully staging all three WTC finals to date, including the most recent showdown at Lord\u2019s between South Africa and Australia\u2014where the Proteas celebrated a historic win.<\/p>\n
In other news, the ICC welcomed two Associate Members into its global fold: the Timor Leste Cricket Federation and Zambia Cricket Union, pushing total ICC membership to 110.<\/p>\n
As for USA Cricket, the governing body has been granted a three-month extension to carry out sweeping governance reforms. The ICC emphasized that these changes must include the completion of fair and transparent elections within the grace period.<\/p>\n
Additionally, new faces were introduced to the ICC Chief Executives\u2019 Committee (CEC), with France Cricket\u2019s Gurumurthy Palani, Cricket Hong Kong\u2019s Anuraag Bhatnagar, and Cricket Canada\u2019s Gurdeep Klair elected as Associate Member representatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mehr Jan The International Cricket Council (ICC) rolled out a slate of key announcements following its 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-11629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}