Netherlands, Nepal given T20I status

Melbourne, June 28 (IANS) The International Cricket Council (ICC) has agreed to give Twenty20 International status to the Netherlands and Nepal at its two-day Annual Conference which concluded here Saturday.

This means that there are eight ICC Associate Members with T20I status. The other six are Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Scotland, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who have T20I status by virtue of having One-Day International (ODI) status.

The ICC Board also confirmed that the USA Cricket Association (USACA) was ICC’s recognised member in the United States and approved the Development Committee’s recommendation that Oman Cricket (OC) should become its 38th Associate Member.

However, it also confirmed the suspension of Brunei and removal of Tonga from the Affiliate Membership.

Associate and Affiliate Members also decided to re-elect Singapore’s Imran Khawaja and Bermuda’s Neil Speight for another two years as their representatives to the board while Cricket Scotland chairman Keith Oliver was replaced by Francois Erasmus of Namibia.