The associate and affiliate members of the International Cricket Council have endorsed a new tournament structure, involving two global qualifying events in the year 2005.
Apart from the two qualifying events which will also include the ICC Trophy, leading to the next World Cup in the West Indies, the new structure has proposed regional qualifying tournaments in 2004, leading to global events in 2005.
In the ICC's Associates' meeting, which was held in London on Tuesday night, focussed on issues affecting the 27 associate members and 47 affiliate members.
The meeting also decided to pass the tournament structure proposal to the ICC Executive Board for approval.
The Associates' meeting, attended by representatives of affiliate nations for the first time, also took the decision to increase representation of affiliate members.
The five delegates from the Bahamas, Oman, Sierra Leone, Spain and Vanuatu took part in the meeting as observers representing the five ICC development regions. From next year they will be given voting rights at such meetings and observer status at the annual conference, an ICC statement said.
The meeting recommended the introduction of Zambia as an independent associate member of the ICC and Malawi as an affiliate member.
To balance the conflicting aims of allowing promising cricketers to play for associate member nations of their birth while not depriving them of playing Test cricket, the meeting proposed abolishing the four-year stand-down period between representing an associate member at the international level and playing for a full member.
