ICC takes over running women's game

The ICC has finally taken over responsibilities for running the women's international game, as expected, after the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) ratified the proposed merger at their AGM. The move is set to have a massive impact on a sport which has struggled in administrative and financial terms.

The IWCC, which ran for nearly fifty years after being founded in 1958, will be replaced by an ICC advisory committee and its former vice-president, Betty Timmer, will chair the new body. England's Gill McConway will represent Europe, Joan Edwards will represent South Africa, West Indies' coach Ann Browne-John and New Zealand's Catherine Campbell are also on the special committee. Australia's captain Belinda Clark has been co-opted on to the committee.

Timmer recognized the significance of the move: "It's great and exciting," she told BBC Sport. "Hopefully we will get in a few years an Under-21 World Cup and more development of women's cricket. Now we can use all the 94 ICC members in the development programme. I hope we can use the ICC sponsorships and, in selling television rights, women's cricket can be a part of it."

A media representative for the ECB, Andrea Wiggins, also realizes the potential. "If it follows the model of the ECB, the merger could be massive," Wiggins told Cricinfo. Significant improvements in the English game have already been seen since the ECB took over from the Women's Cricket Association as administrators for women's cricket in England: the international side benefit from Lottery funding, increased sponsorship and personalized coaching.

With a view to the merger, the ICC had already appointed a women's project officer whose principal role is to integrate the bodies.