ICC Chief Executive David Richardson outlines key priorities for ICC team for 2017

There are four main pillars of the ICC strategy and under each of those we have a number of key objectives we aim to deliver year by year to improve and grow the sport. I would like to take the opportunity to share these so people know what the ICC, together with its members, is trying to achieve in 2017 in particular.

The four pillars are, perhaps as you would expect; cricket, growth, integrity and events and commercial partnerships. Starting with cricket and our focus is on leading the sport to facilitate competitive, entertaining and meaningful cricket for players and fans.

In order to achieve this we need to maintain a world-class environment for international cricket and significant part of that means a high standard of officiating. I am very proud of the Emirates Elite Panel of Match Officials and our targets for correct decision making this year currently stands at 94% rising to 98.5% after DRS.

We have already stated our ambition for a clear and consistent approach to DRS in international cricket and the need to finalise future international cricket structures to bring context to all three formats of the game and I believe that we are very close to delivering something that works for the sport.

Women’s cricket is a big focus for us, in this, the year of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. We are developing a new women’s specific strategy to build on the success of our previous cycle and to accelerate growth going forward. That is not to say the women’s game is not part of our wider strategy, it is. But I feel this is such an important area of growth that to optimise what we are doing it deserves its own focus.

Finally we also need to determine cricket’s strategy in respect of participation in the Olympic Games. It is something we will continue to explore in the first half of 2017 and if our Members agree they would like to pursue it, then that’s when the real work for Olympic inclusion begins.

Our second pillar, protecting the integrity of the sport, is of fundamental importance to everyone here at the ICC. We must continue to provide leadership and support in the global fight against corruption and we will complete the implementation of all agreed recommendations made by the Integrity Working Party.

We will continue to build stronger partnerships, not only with Member Boards but also external Law Enforcement authorities around the world. This will enable us to continue to investigate and disrupt corruption threats and prosecute offences.

But protecting the integrity of cricket goes beyond our Anti-Corruption unit and we must ensure that our anti-doping programme is as effective as possible. We will introduce blood testing in 2017 as part of our ongoing commitment to a drug free sport and will continue to maintain our WADA compliance.

Any breaches of our Code of Ethics will be prosecuted and we will, in line with best practice in global sport, introduce a new Gender Recognition Policy in 2017 as well as review our Age and Nationality Eligibility requirements.

Our third strategic area of focus is that of events and commercial partnerships and we have committed to promote the sport by delivering exciting and engaging global events, attracting new and diverse fans and building long-term successful commercial partnerships. ICC events attract hundreds of millions of fans around the world and we want every event to be bigger and better than the last for the player and fans.

This means doing things more smartly and attracting new audiences via new platforms and this year we have a particular focus on the fan engagement strategy, ICC’s initiative to understand and grow cricket fans around the world, particularly our female and millennial audiences as well as providing for the sport’s loyal fans. As part of our work looking at international cricket structures, we want our qualifying events to be merit-based and provide every member with a pathway to the ICC events.

Commercial partnerships play a fundamental role in enabling us to deliver our strategy and as a sport we are fortunate to have a number of committed long-term sponsors. Revenue generation from broadcasters, other digital and media rights partners, sponsors and brand licensees will help us secure the future of the cricket and allow us to pursue an aggressive global growth strategy.

And it is growth that brings me to our fourth strategic pillar, where we have committed to growing the game by creating more opportunities for more people and nations to enjoy the sport and increase the competitiveness of international cricket.

We have recently appointed a new Head of Global Development, Will Glenwright and he is in the process of developing a global growth strategy for the game that will be launched in the second half of the year. In addition to that we will focus on growing participants and fans in two emerging markets; USA and China with a feasibility study and market assessment currently underway in China.

We will review the performance and merit based funding for our Associate and Affiliate Members to ensure better growth and review our ICC High Performance Strategy.

As you can see we have some big chunky aims for 2017, but we need to challenge in a global market and simply maintaining the status quo means we will fall behind other sports. We must be ambitious and pursue growth and ensure our sport is evolving, attracting new fans and developing in new markets all whilst protecting the heritage of the game we all love.