ICC suspends Zimbabwe with immediate effect

The International Cricket Council has suspended Zimbabwe Cricket with immediate effect, it was announced late on Thursday.

Zimbabwe Cricket was found to have been in breach of the ICC Constitution for failing to "provide a process for free and democratic elections and to ensure that there is no government interference in its governance and/or administration for cricket respectively."

Zimbabwe Cricket will no longer receive funding from the ICC and its representative teams are now ineligible from competing in any ICC events.

"We do not take the decision to suspend a Member lightly, but we must keep our sport free from political interference," said ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar.

"What has happened in Zimbabwe is a serious breach of the ICC Constitution and we cannot allow it to continue unchecked.

"The ICC wants cricket to continue in Zimbabwe in accordance with the ICC Constitution."

For Zimbabwe Cricket to be reinstated, the ICC first want to see the elected ZC Board restored in the next three months. Should that happen their Full Member status will be considered in October’s ICC Board meeting.

The suspension puts Zimbabwe’s participation in the Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in October in doubt, with the Men’s T20 World Cup to be staged in Australia from October-November 2020.

The major news comes after the ICC's Annual Conference in London, which also saw the green light given to concussion substitutes and changes in over-rate penalties.

Concussion substitutes are now permitted in all forms of international men's and women's cricket and first-class competitions.

The medical staff on each team will make the call on concussion replacements, which must be a like-for-like replacement that is approved by the match referee.

Concussion substitutes have been in use in Australia in one-day cricket since 2016 and in the Sheffield Shield competition since 2017 as part of the ICC's two-year trial.

The first match with concussion substitutes will be the opening Ashes Test between Australia and England in Birmingham from August 1, which is also the first match of the World Test Championship.

In addition, slow over rates in international cricket will no longer see offending captains suspended.

Instead, the entire team which incurs a slow over rate breach will be fined as the same level as the captain.

However, for Test Championship matches, a team that is behind in their over rate will have two competition points removed for each over they are behind.