Ricky Skerritt: 'There's a growing desire to support the sustainable return of international cricket in Pakistan'
Skerritt explains the bidding process and logic behind picking the hosts for the ICC tournaments from 2024 to 2031
There are three themes. One is to show the extent to which the ICC has committed to spread its major events geographically across the world. All the Full Members are involved in hosting in this next eight-year cycle from 2023-31 except Afghanistan, and three Associate members factored in, in some of the partnerships - Scotland, Namibia and USA. Remember, just not so long ago, when I became a member of the ICC board, there was this very strong perception that only three countries could host any events - the Big 3 (India, England and Australia). The Big 3 story was hammering the ICC by the media. So I would say that this venue allocation is a statement that's very powerful in a new direction of inclusiveness.
There was an events hosting sub-committee put in place to review the bids. There were several bids that were basically expressions of interest with some depth of why me. That's how it works generally. [The bidder says] I would like you to consider me and my board and my country, my venues, and here's what we have, and here's why we think that we can help you meet your various objectives by bringing a particular event in a particular year or particular time of the year. The bids were not final documents. Even with the present decisions, there's still a period up until March next year [2022], when venue agreements will have to be sort of hammered out.
"I could tell you from the new leadership in Pakistan [at the PCB] and its neighbours, and from a cricket perspective, there's a growing desire to support the sustainable return of international cricket in Pakistan"
This move to actually bring USA Cricket and Cricket West Indies in a bid partnership is historic. It came about primarily because of the kind of attitude that we saw from the new leadership in the USA Cricket. The first time I met Paraag Marathe and Iain Higgins [USA Cricket chairman and then CEO respectively] was in England at the ICC meetings in July 2019. It was my first meeting at the ICC board as CWI president and so too theirs. We began to talk about how we could do some meaningful stuff together. Then, just before the pandemic hit, Johnny Grave [CWI CEO] and myself actually travelled to the USA to have some further discussions with USA Cricket. We all agreed that it was an opportunity to go after an [global] event. We were committed to doing something together. And you know, the rest is history.
I'm not into any details of the Olympics, but the process is underway. It's now about getting support from the International Olympic Committee. It is one step at a time. But it opens up the reality that there are two or three facilities right now available for cricket in the USA, and whether USA Cricket will be able to deliver some more cricket stadiums in advance of the Olympic Games. We have been told that there are three grounds that can be made ready for the T20 World Cup.
We fitted Pakistan in the most pragmatic spot in a way in which Pakistan can meet its own objectives while the ICC meets its own. We are aware of the special circumstances that have surrounded Pakistan, but I could tell you from the new leadership in Pakistan [at the PCB] and its neighbours, and from a cricket perspective, there's a growing desire to support the sustainable return of international cricket in Pakistan.
Not in our committee. Not at all. Not at the ICC board as well. When we presented it, the board received it with great support. Let me put it this way, we were committed from day one, to spread ICC events in Asia. And getting Pakistan and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh involved were key objectives of the committee. Remember, we had the mandate to take the received bids and rearrange them, with some discussions with the bidder, and to suggest the formation of partnerships where it could help the success of the bid. We were not too worried about who was competing against who. We were prepared to get partners together where necessary.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo