Continuing with the promotion of the game in Asia, International Cricket Council has said that it would spend half of its development fund in the region in the next three years.
ICC president Ehsan Mani told the Asian Cricket Council's development seminar at Lahore on Sunday that the world body had allocated over USD 100 million for development of cricket out of which USD 50 million would be spent in Asia.
The News' quoted him as saying: "The recent series between India and Pakistan demonstrated the game's strength in the subcontinent."
The ICC president said the newest full member from Asia, Bangladesh, had faced a challenging time since its entry into Test cricket and the world body had been working closely with them and the ACC to assist the minnows.
"Besides, the programme is targeting improvement in the playing standards of its associate and affiliate members," he added.
The programme, he said, also helped ICC to increase the participation in the next World Cup to 16 countries. Last year's World Cup gave ICC an opportunity to assess the success of the development programme as Canada, Holland, Kenya and Namibia showed improved performances.
"The introduction of ICC Inter-continental Cup from this year provides 12 associate countries the exposure to international three-day cricket for the first time." Mani revealed that China would table applications for ACC and ICC membership later this year.
Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, urged all the cricket boards to adopt good governance and cited the system of New Zealand Cricket (NZC) as an example.
Speed said good governance creates good cricket teams and the effective governance is a very important feature of an outstanding sports organisation. He said that boards must be smaller in staff strength; its directors should be specialist with some former players, having clear definition of roles between governance and management and with clearly defined tenure, shorter rather than long and focussing on strategy.
"An influential and effective chairman working closely with a competent and effective chief executive can make a huge difference to a sporting organisation. This is arguably the most important partnership in a sports organisation," Speed said.
Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, delivered a lecture on "Romance of Pakistan Cricket and performance of Pakistan team against India". He said the recent series between India and Pakistan was very beneficial for the game.
Former Australian captain Greg Chappell delivered a lecture on "Secret of the best batsmen and how to train them" and cited examples of legends like Don Bradman, Sunil Gavaskar, Gary Sobers, Sachin Tendulkar and Vivian Richards.
Clive Lloyd, the former West Indies captain, spoke about next World Cup, which is being hosted by West Indies. He said for the first time the mega event would be staged in at least 10 independent countries spread across the Turquoise waters of the Caribbean sea.
