Sourav Ganguly, the president of the BCCI, was named chair of the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee on Wednesday. Ganguly, a former India captain, succeeds Anil Kumble, a former teammate and India captain who stood down after serving the maximum of three three-year mandates. On Tuesday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Board of Directors met in Dubai to make the decision.

“I am delighted to welcome Sourav to the position of Chair of the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee. His experience as one of the world’s best players and latterly as an administrator will help us shape our cricketing decisions moving forward. I would also like to thank Anil for his outstanding leadership over the last nine years which has included improving the international game through more regular and consistent application of DRS and a robust process for addressing suspect bowling actions,” said ICC chairman Greg Barclay.

The ICC Board also endorsed the continuation of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) in its current format, which consists of a nine-team league played over two years with a final between the top two teams at the end.

Following the expansion of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to a 14-team event in the next cycle (2027), the Board has accepted a recommendation from the Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) that the primary avenue for qualification for the event is based on rankings at a pre-determined cutoff date, with the top 10 teams on the Men’s ODI Rankings qualifying automatically and the rest determined through a global qualifier.

The Board has approved first-class status and List A classification being applied to women’s cricket to align with the men’s game and applied retrospectively.

In the coming time, the ICC Women’s Committee will be known as the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee and will assume all decision-making responsibility for women’s cricket reporting directly to the CEC. Johnny Grave, CEO of Cricket West Indies, has been appointed to the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee.

Barclay further added that “This has been an extremely productive set of Board meetings and I’d like to thank my fellow Board Directors for their efforts in travelling to Dubai to enable us to enjoy our first face to face meeting in more than two years. International travel is not easy in COVID times, but we have achieved a significant amount by being in the same room.”

(With IANS inputs)