New Zealand's Greg Barclay elected ICC independent Chairman

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Greg Barclay has been elected as the next independent chairman of the International Cricket Council after an extended round of voting. He will replace Pakistan’ Imran Khwaja who presided over the chairmanship after Shashank Manohar’s resignation from the post of ICC Chairman in July earlier this year. Barclay has been at the helm of affairs of New Zealand Cricket since 2012 and now he will resign from his post to serve as an independent chairman of the global cricket governing body. Apart from being the head of New Zealand Cricket, he was also the director of the ICC World Cup 2015 which was jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

“It is an honour to be elected as the Chair of the International Cricket Council and I would like to thank my fellow ICC Directors for their support. I hope we can come together to lead the sport and emerge from the global pandemic in a strong position and poised for growth,” Barclay said on his elevation to the top of the ICC decision-making body.

Barclay emphasised on the development of the game and said that he will work for strengthening the prospect of cricket in countries where it already has its footsteps along with expanding the landscape to other countries as well. He expressed solidarity with all 104 ICC members and said that he will focus on the sustainability of the game.

"I look forward to working in partnership with our Members to strengthen the game in our core markets as well as grow it beyond that ensuring more of the world can enjoy cricket. I take my position as a custodian of the game very seriously and am committed to working on behalf of all 104 ICC Members to create a sustainable future for our sport,” Barclay provided a broader outlook of his roadmap as the next chairman of the ICC.

Notably, Barclay also warned the organisation of serious final repercussions if the ICC fails to host its marquee events in the next three years as it had to postpone as many as three global tournaments in wake of COVID-19 pandemic this year.

“We have got to deliver the world events that are to come and those that are postponed. Not just for the cricketing outcomes but there are commercial concerns as well. If we fail to deliver all of those events then we will be penalised by the broadcasters and we won’t receive the last of the ongoing payments,” Barclay was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

Barclay said in case of lack of global events, ICC members will lose out on revenue on which some of the member boards are heavily reliant. He added that subsequently, it will diminish the options for the ICC in terms of investment for the growth and development of the game.

“That, in turn, is going to affect the ICC’s ability to invest in its own programmes and enable it to make distributions to members. Unfortunately, a lot of the ICC members are heavily reliant on those disbursements,” Barclay added in his conversation to Reuters.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has jolted the cricketing world with cancellations or postponement of many bilateral series and global events and Barclay will have his task cut out to resurrect the financial outlook of the ICC during and after the pandemic is over.

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