Neutral umpires return, ICC supports Afghanistan

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed the return of predominantly neutral umpires for Test matches, while it has also voted to continue to support Afghanistan's men's team in international cricket despite recent political upheaval in the country that forced the abandonment its national women's program.

At a recent board meeting in Dubai, the sport's governing body also confirmed the qualification process for the 2024 men's T20 World Cup, which has guaranteed a spot for co-host United States, as well as the women's World Cups in 2024 (T20Is) and 2025 (ODIs).

The first ever women's Under-19 World Cup, a T20 event, has also been locked in and will be played in South Africa in January 2023.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan's immediate future in international cricket was clouded last year when the Taliban, who had returned to power, confirmed they would not allow the country's women's side to play.

Cricket Australia subsequently cancelled their scheduled home men's Test against Afghanistan, saying the Taliban's views on women's sport did not fit with CA's "vision for cricket (as) a sport for all and (CA) supports the game unequivocally for women at every level".

Given nations must field both men's and women's teams in order to hold full-member status with the ICC, it left the future of the Afghanistan men's team in doubt.

But having allowed Afghanistan to take part in last year's T20 World Cup and continue to play limited-overs cricket at international level, the ICC said on Sunday there would be no change to their status.

In a statement, the ICC said it was "continuing to support the Afghanistan Men’s team to play international cricket while monitoring the governance of the sport in the country including the development of the women's game".

Neutral umpires

After two years of allowing home umpires to officiate international matches due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, neutral umpires will be back for men's Test matches in the 2022-23 season.

However, one on-field umpire as well as the fourth official will continue to be home-based, with the second on-field umpire, the match referee and the TV umpire to all be neutral.

There was no announcement regarding the number of unsuccessful reviews available to each team in Test matches, which was increased from two to three when home umpires were instated in 2020.

All officials for ODIs and T20s will be home umpires.

World Cup qualification

Twelve teams will qualify automatically for the 2024 men's T20 World Cup, including co-hosts West Indies and the USA, for what will be a 20-team event.

The top eight teams at this year's T20 World Cup in Australia plus the two co-hosts as well as the next two top-ranked teams as of November 14 will gain automatic qualification.

The eight remaining slots will be filled via qualifier tournaments.

Similarly, the top six teams at next year's women's T20 World Cup will earn automatic qualification for the 2024 edition along with the yet-to-be-determined host nation and the next highest ranked team.

The two remaining teams in the 10-team event will come from a qualifier tournament.

The 2022-25 ODI Women's Championship will determine the automatic qualifiers for the 2025 50-over World Cup, with the top five teams at the end of the Championship plus the host nation (which is yet to be determined) to qualify automatically.

The remaining two spots at the eight-team event will be determined by a qualifier tournament.

In addition, the ICC Board said they had "approved a recommendation that ODI status be extended to a number of Associate Member women’s teams to enable them to progress to global qualifying events based on ODI rankings".

However, it did not say which Associate nations would be given ODI status.

The ICC also finalised details of the 16-team Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup, which will be played in South Africa in January next year.