World T20 main draw set to expand to 'Super 12'

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is most likely to add two more teams to the main draw of the reinstated World Twenty20 in 2018.

Discussions at the associates meeting of the ongoing ICC annual conference in Edinburgh also indicated that representatives of the associate nations on the ICC board may get full voting rights as well.

"What I have heard described is that two teams will go through from each first group to create a Super 12," Tim Cutler, the Hong Kong Cricket Association chief executive, was quoted as saying by espncricinfo.

"That seems to be the agreed format at the moment. Hopefully that means with two more going through, potentially two more could come into the qualifiers to make 18 but the sound of it at the moment is it's going to be 16 into 12. It's a move in the right direction."

In better news for the associates, there is a motion to give their three representatives on the ICC full voting privileges and therefore a voice when it comes to decision making. ICC chairman Shashank Manohar made the announcement and it could be ratified later in the week.

"Everything we're hearing from the ICC chairman really does point towards a new era in ICC governance and the structures behind that," Cutler said.

"We talk about one man, one vote, are we going to have a 105-member federation with votes? Highly unlikely in the short term but if we do get to a point where the three Associate directors have a vote each, that really does shift the paradigm that was the ICC board and really moving things in the right direction where emerging nations really do have a true voice at the top table."

There has also been a change in associate representation on the ICC board with Cricket Ireland's Ross McCollum winning a vote to replace Bermuda's Neil Speight. The other two incumbents - Singapore's Imran Khawaja and Namibia's Francois Erasmus - maintain their places on the board.

--IANS

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