Every cricket fan has heard of the International Cricket Council. Many people are familiar with its premier tournaments, such as the ICC World Cup, the Champions Trophy, and The Ashes.
But how much do you really know about this governing body? As you look toward the World Cup cricket 2024 schedule and try to figure out which games to attend, it pays to step back and look at the history of the ICC. Let’s take a closer look.
How did it start?
The ICC was originally known as the Imperial Cricket Conference. The original members were England, Australia, and South Africa. It was founded in 1909. Only a couple of decades later, The West Indies, New Zealand, and India gained membership.
The sport rapidly gained popularity in island nations in particular, which is somewhat surprising considering the geographical challenges of getting around some of these places. In The West Indies in particular, the sport became a unifying force for the diverse nations and became a way to put the region on the map. The West Indies quickly started moving up The ranks in tournaments.
New Zealand similarly saw a rise in popularity, and it didn’t take long for them to develop their own high-level tournament in the Plunkett Shield.
Women get on board
It was less than 30 years after the founding of the men’s ICC that women also started playing internationally. England and Australia played their first match against one another in 1934, and the Women’s Cricket Council was formed in 1958. It later merged with the ICC to become a unified body.
Growth through the years
Membership in the ICC has more or less grown consistently since its founding. The main exception to this is the period during and just after World War II, when numbers temporarily dipped. It wasn’t long, however, before people started getting on board again.
It was precisely because of this slowdown, however, that the game started taking on new and interesting forms. As opposed to the traditional style of the game that usually lasted for days at a time, people started playing a version that had only one inning. This paved the way for the variations that we see in today’s cricket.
South Africa rallies
Another interesting phenomenon that started taking place in the postwar period was the development of “rebel tours.” The country was suspended from the ICC because of the Council’s opposition to apartheid.
However, the South African national organizing body found ways to participate internationally nonetheless. They started organizing “rebel tours” for international teams who wanted to come to the country and play against them, outside ICC constructs.
These “extra-ICC” games continued into the 1980s, and after the South African government eliminated the Apartheid regime they were let back into the formal group. However, the rebel games provided a way for them to stay involved during the interim period.
Limited overs take root
It was in the 1970s that the game started formally taking different courses. Limited-over matches started in the 1970s. These shorter versions of the game catered to the modern schedule and allowed people to attend a match and then get on with their other business.
In 1975, the format started being used in the World Cup, and it was immediately popular.
More changes take place
In the early years of the World Cup, a number of small changes took place that would help the contest move towards its current form. The balls used changed color from red to white, and players were no longer required to dress fully in white, as had originally been the case. And in 1992, a third umpire was added in an effort to make calls more fair.
People start to bet
In recent years, betting on the game has become popular. With the rise of numerous betting platforms and other types of information portals online, it has become increasingly easy to put money on a favorite team. Indeed, you can find any number of information portals, discussion forums, and other types of sites from which you can gain additional information and stats on all the teams.
And it has become easier to bet across national boundaries. If you download an IPL betting app in India, you can bet without difficulty, regardless of where in the world you are. Thanks to the addition of common currencies such as crypto for payments and winnings distribution, people can bet as much as they want, whenever they want.
More changes still
The ICC will surely continue to evolve. 2028 will mark a big year for the sport, with its first inclusion in the Olympics in Los Angeles. And the evolution will continue from there.
