The Role of ICC in cricket

The International Cricket Council (ICC), as we all know, is the global governing body for cricket. It represents 108 nations (including full members, associates, and affiliates), with the major aim to spread the spread across the globe and to allow members to grow with it.

ICC’s vision as said in their website “The ICC has a long-term ambition for cricket to become the world’s favorite sport. We will lead the continued drive towards more competitive, entertaining, and meaningful cricket for players and fans. We will grow the sport by creating more opportunities for more people and nations to enjoy it and increase the competitiveness of international cricket at all levels. We will promote cricket by delivering exciting and engaging global events, attracting new and diverse fans, and building long-term successful commercial partnerships. And finally, we will continue to make considerable efforts to protect the integrity of the sport.”

They strive to achieve this by following these values, “Fairness & Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, Teamwork, Respect for diversity, and Commitment to the global game.”

To bring all these into reality, the ICC plays the following roles that will be discussed below.

Formulating and implementing the rules and regulations of the game:

For all the roles they play in governing the game of cricket, perhaps the most important one of the International Cricket Council is to lay down the “Laws of Cricket” and maintain it without compromising anywhere. 

These laws cover all the aspects of the game ranging from the player conduct, gameplay, equipment being used to the match management. The apex board periodically reviews and updates the laws to make sure it remains relevant and is in line with the spirit of cricket. They are further inclined to standardize the laws of game so that it is played in a fair manner across different levels and regions.

Organizing international cricket events:

The other key responsibility of the board is organizing cricketing events and multi-national tournaments just like the other team sports. This enables not just the game to grow in different parts of the world and gain significant viewership but also increases the competitiveness amongst teams.

ICC’s major flagship tournament is the Cricket World Cup which is played at various levels (Senior international and Under-19) and includes both men & women. Apart from there are global level tournaments for different formats such as ICC T20 World Cup, World Test Championship, and ICC Champions Trophy. 

They will also have to oversee the smooth conduct of bilateral series among the member countries and other regional competitions.

Promoting the growth and development of cricket:

ICC invests hugely in developing cricket infrastructures in up-and-coming cricketing nations in a bid to make the sport large in the global landscape. It includes nurturing of talents, development at the grassroot level and ensuring they get a chance at a competitive level consistently.  Also, they offer funding for construction of cricketing facilities, providing coaching programs and obviously promoting the sport by extensive marketing activities.

In short, the ICC strives hard to make it reach beyond the traditional cricket playing nations by fostering the growth of cricket globally and making it more inclusive & accessible to people from diverse backgrounds.

Upholding the integrity of the game:

Major aspect that defines any sport is how clean it is being played and cricket is no different. ICC is very strict when it comes to maintaining the integrity of the game and they have very stringent measures to curb any sort of activities that brings disruption to the game. This includes match-fixing, spot fixing, doping, corruption among others and they do so by having a dedicated anti-corruption and anti-doping task force.

These units work closely with all the cricket boards, players, officials and other law enforcement agencies to educate, detect, investigate or prevent any sort of misconduct.

Basically the ICC’s main task is to safeguard the game’s credibility at all costs and ensure it is played with the right spirit.

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