International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced that the Cricket Boards of Cambodia and Uzbekistan are now the 24th and 25th Members of the Asia region, whilst Cote D’Ivoire is Africa’s 21st Member, with the ICC now comprising of 108 Members in total, including 96 Associates.
The Cricket Federation of Uzbekistan (CFU) has an exciting development program that is focused on the growth of the Women’s Cricket. The UCF women’s cricket plan sees 15 teams playing organized competitions with a pathway program for their Under 19 and Under 17 players, to provide them opportunities to progress to the senior teams. Their youth program is currently working alongside 50 schools in different provinces to further increase participation for women and girls. CFU have been in discussion with regards to their membership for quite some time now as CEO Aziz G. Mihliev flew to UAE in November 2020 to meet officials from the Executive Board of the Asian Cricket Council and regional manager of ICC, Iqbal Sikander.
Africa’s newest member the Côte d’Ivoire Cricket Federation run a national league senior men’s competition with eight teams, there are also established junior boys’ and girls’ programmes as part of the country’s schools’ grassroots initiative. The Federation has embarked on several initiatives aimed at growing women’s cricket including the appointment of a female Board member to drive this agenda.
The Cricket Association of Cambodia (CAC) has been accepted as a Member subject to it demonstrating it has a satisfactory women’s pathway in place by 31 December 2022. Women’s cricket is the key priority for Cambodia after cricket activity was severely impacted by COVID-19. The CAC plan is set to include the re-establishment of indoor cricketing activities and regular coaching in eight schools, and the introduction of a T20 hard ball tournament with eight teams in November 2022. The CAC which was formed in 2011 has overseen a very promising schools-based junior cricket program and local coaches have facilitated successful soft ball indoor cricket activities, as well as 14 registered teams regularly playing men’s senior domestic cricket in Cambodia. Cambodia Cricket is also going to host cricket as a sports category in the 2023 South East Asian Games and their Associate membership will be crucial for them to get the required funding to put together a successful event.
