ICC $300 Million to lift world standards

[Natman20]

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will pump in around $300 million to develop the game worldwide, the governing body announced on Tuesday.

Haroon Lorgat, CEO of the ICC, described the initiative as "the biggest investment in global development by any sport outside football".

The ICC pledged around $40 million a year for seven years from 2009 to help its 94 associate and affiliate members, placed below the 10 test-playing teams...............

http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/cricket/n...wide-standards

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Thats the first I have seen of this story so don't know if this is completely true.
Discuss:

[silentstriker]

Yup, I read it on cricinfo as well. Not a bad idea in principle, if it goes to the countries that might have a chance, like Kenya. And not Bermuda.

[andruid]

Dude what's with the Bermuda bashing?!

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by andruid

Dude what's with the Bermuda bashing?!

Nothing. But there is no chance of them becoming a serious competitor with a population of 66,000. It would be a waste of money. Same thing for teams like Jersey - what future do they have exactly? Are they going to ever field an international class XI with 90,000 population? Nope.

But its the ICC so I'm not confident.

[FRAZ]

Canada gave cricket a national status just recently which means that cricket will be entitled to regular federal funding .
USA is least likely to give or adapt cricket and I don't know what mentality they have .

[Speersy]

How does the ICC get money out of the TV deals?
Do the companies have to pay a percentage of their profits to the ICC?

[open365]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

Nothing. But there is no chance of them becoming a serious competitor with a population of 66,000. It would be a waste of money. Same thing for teams like Jersey - what future do they have exactly? Are they going to ever field an international class XI with 90,000 population? Nope.

But its the ICC so I'm not confident.

AWTA

Especialy about not being confident the ICC will spend it well

[duffer]

Like the intent, but no amount of money will be enough to cultivate the required cricketing culture needed for a minnow to step up to competitive ODI or Test team.

[howardj]

I'd rather see it poured into improving the West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Kenya etc.

Rather than USA, downtown Luxembourg and outer Mongolia.

[Kweek]

hope the KNCB (dutch board) will get some money now, there is potential around and I think if more schools are approached you could maybe just maybe get a decent ODI side and work from there...

for now..Holland is falling hopelessly behind Ireland and Scotland as they do get fixtures against test countries

[unccricket]

i don't see why there is such an anti-US bias. i mean, sure the national board is crap, but there is a lot of cricket being played at the club level. Personally, I think we need additional funds to further the development of the game. To me, that means new cricket grounds and better developmental programs/systems.

Where I am, in North Carolina, we have 8-9 teams within a 10-15 mile radius who all share ONE ground. My university club doesn't even have a decent ground to play on. Would love to see a couple additional grounds in the area, but that is unlikely to happen without outside help.

I concede the point that a lot of US cricketers are expats, but there is still youth cricket going on well and that should be fostered. The biggest hurdle though is the national board

[Athlai]

Originally Posted by duffer

Like the intent, but no amount of money will be enough to cultivate the required cricketing culture needed for a minnow to step up to competitive ODI or Test team.

DWTA

Money lures talent, talent brings class. Well some places may not have a large enough population to supply this talent, but hey you'd think a multi-billion dollar company would figure that out!

[andruid]

Originally Posted by Athlai

DWTA

Money lures talent, talent brings class. Well some places may not have a large enough population to supply this talent, but hey you'd think a multi-billion dollar company would figure that out!

What about visibility and active competition. Associates need to have their national teams laying regular high profile mayches to draw in the kids. After all nobody wants to play to a team nobody gets to see or is maligned for being a soft target to mailce.

[open365]

Originally Posted by howardj

I'd rather see it poured into improving the West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Kenya etc.

Rather than USA, downtown Luxembourg and outer Mongolia.

Can't wait to see the Downtown Luxembourg V Rural Luxembourg 5 match test series epic in 2015.

[andruid]

Originally Posted by open365

Can't wait to see the Downtown Luxembourg V Rural Luxembourg 5 match test series epic in 2015.

Oh come on lets be a little bit serious here!!

Obviously that's not going to happen (the Luxembourg thing) but there has to be some purchase to the idea that Ireland v. Scotland or Kenya v.Bangladesh or Namibia v. Uganda could all develop into viable and higly competitive test match series if given the right sort of investment.