ICC recommends changes in chairman term, Jay Shah could serve two three-year tenures

The International Cricket Council has recommended changes to the term of ICC chairman and the Independent Director to two terms of three years each instead of the current three terms of two years each. If approved, this would mean Jay Shah, who is set to take the top role in the body, would serve two terms of three years each.

While the total tenure remains the same at six years, the change is said to maintain more continuity at the posts. The ICC feels that it would provide security and stability to the positions of the top officials, and they can work freely without having to think about elections every two years.

Shah was elected unopposed as the new ICC chairman in August and would take up the role from December 1 onwards. He could be the ICC chair till 2030. The outgoing chairman Greg Barclay served two terms of two years each after being appointed to the top post in 2020. Meanwhile the independent director's position is empty after PepsiCo chair Indra Naayi completed her three terms earlier.

Notably, the International Body Board has approved the women's future tours programme for the 2025-2029 cycle. The FTP, which will be the second for women, will be announced in the coming days. The ICC chief executives committee has also approved shifting the annual rankings to May 1 from October 1.

"It was also approved by the ICC Chief Executives' Committee (CEC) that the Women's rankings annual update will now move to May 1 from October 1 of each year and teams will now need to have played a minimum of eight matches from six, due to the significant increase in women's international cricket," ICC said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the mechanism for Associate teams to get their ODI status has been formalized. There are 16 women's teams in the current cycle with 11 full-member teams. For the next cycle, the top-two Associate teams which reach the women's ODI World Cup qualifier will get the status with three teams getting the status based on T20I rankings.

The ICC has also decided to create two annual International T20 tournaments. "The strategy includes the creation of two annual T20 International tournaments between 2025 and 2028, which would offer structured cricket with context to 24 teams in the pathway ahead of the 16-team ICC Women's T20 World Cup in 2030, with further details to be announced in due course," said the ICC statement.