ICC announces decision on status of matches by David Kendix

DateLine: 15th April 2008

The ICC has made a number of recent decisions regarding the status of matches and invited me to pass these on to ACS members.

First some prospective decisions regarding ODI status:

* All matches played in the 2008 Asia Cup will have ODI status, but thereafter only matches played at the event involving Full Members or Associate Members with ODI status will count as ODIs, with all other matches having List A status

* In respect to future Afro-Asia events, ODI status would apply to the matches between Full Members or Associate Members with ODI status at the time of the event. All other matches at the event would have List A status. (Note that the format for this event will be changed and in future the matches will be played between member countries from the regions rather than composite teams.)

Now an update on the thorny issue of the first-class status of matches played in South Africa between 1961 and 1991. As a reminder, since South Africa were not an ICC member between those years, they did not have the right of a full member to award first-class status to matches played in their own country. Also, on their return to ICC membership, they did not acquire the right retrospectively to award first-class status to matches played during their period of non-membership. Therefore there has never been a definitive ruling on the first-class status of nearly 30 years of domestic cricket played in the country.

Last year, ACS approached ICC pointing out this anomaly, as well as pointing out the fact that ‘Tests’ played by South Africa between 1961 and 1970 have never been labelled ‘official’ for a similar reason.

The ICC decided the following:

* To ratify the decision of UCBSA to retrospectively confirm the first class status of domestic provincial matches played in SA between 1961 and 1991 under the auspices of the SACA, SACBOC and SACB. (This covers the leading white and non-white provincial competitions.)

* To confirm that the Test matches played by South Africa between 1961 and 1970 were unofficial, but to recognise that these matches have always been treated as Tests by statisticians. Consequently ICC has not asked for, nor does it expect there to be, any retrospective amendments to statisticians' established Test records.

* To retain its position on the rebel tour matches i.e. that they are unofficial.

Reaction of ACS Committee

The General Committee of the ACS discussed the above at its meeting on Saturday 12th April and agreed the following.

* To welcome the ratification of the first-class status of leading white and non-white South African domestic matches, in line with statisticians’ treatment of them

* In respect of the 1961-1970 ‘Tests’, to welcome the fact that, notwithstanding their continued technical status as unofficial, there is no wish retrospectively to amend long established Test records

* To express disappointment at the continued wish of ICC to withhold official status from the so-called ‘rebel’ tours that statisticians have almost universally counted as first-class from the time they were played.

The committee then considered ACS’s own position with regard to the rebel tour matches and concluded that it did not wish retrospectively to change long-established records and that its own publications would continue to include those matches. The committee was also advised that, following the above ICC announcement, Wisden has re-confirmed its decision to continue treating these matches as first-class in its records.

David Kendix 16th April 2008