The two Asian countries, and their European brethren, will be officially inducted as ICC’s newest members at its 78th Annual General Meeting.
While Mongolia and Tajikistan are the 22nd and 23rd members of the ICC from the Asian region, Switzerland is the 35th entrant to the ICC umbrella from Europe. The governing body now has 106 member countries, including 94 associate nations and 12 full-member ones.
“We are delighted to be welcoming three new Members into the ICC family, which reflects the growth and potential of the global game,”
“All three applications demonstrated an impressive commitment to growing the game – particularly amongst women and youth – and we look forward to assisting them in achieving their potential.”
William Glenwright, ICC general manager for development, said.
The Mongolian Cricket Association was officially formed back in 2007, followed by Tajikistan Cricket Federation in 2011 and Cricket Switzerland in 2014.
Cricket was officially accepted in Mongolia as one of the National Youth Games in 2019, with the ICC release stating that women constitute 39% of all participants playing school cricket in the country. Mongolia is also due to host the International Youth Green Games in September 2021, in which cricket will be one of the sports on show.
Switzerland, who are seen playing regularly in the Central European tournaments, have 33 active clubs in the country and organise three men’s domestic competitions.
In Tajikistan, support of the Ministry of Sports and the Olympic Committee led to forming a cricket body in the country nearly a decade back. They have been focusing a lot on developing infrastructure and building a domestic structure for women and junior cricket.
While welcoming new members, the ICC also confirmed that African nation Zambia is no longer its member after continuous non-compliance with ICC Membership Criteria. The ICC suspended Zambia at 2019 AGM.
The governing body has also suspended Russia, whose cricket body now has time until the next ICC AGM to show compliance with the membership criteria. Otherwise, they run the risk of having their membership terminated too.
