The chief executive of Ukraine’s cricket board says it “ticks all the boxes” to become an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and that the game would not survive if entry was refused.
Ukraine is expected to get a second level of membership at the governing body’s board meeting this month, giving the war-torn country Twenty20 International status and funding from the ICC, which has earmarked $30.8 million for its 96 associate members this year.
Ukraine The Cricket Federation (UCF) has been organizing cricket for the past two decades and has a pool of 15,000 students at the senior level, most of whom are Indians.
Its chief executive, Cobas Olivier, told Reuters that it met all ICC requirements before the Russian invasion.
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“We checked all the boxes when the war started on February 24,” he said.
“I have great faith in this process … and I am very confident that Ukraine will be an associate member of the ICC.”
South Africa’s Olivier said the ICC should look into how the EU “fast-tracked” Ukraine’s candidate status, adding that it set a “very good precedent”.
UCF President Hardeep Singh has made arrangements for the training of the players of the national team India While Olivier set up base in Zagreb after escaping from Kyiv.
He is effectively running UCF’s junior and women’s cricket programs from Zagreb and engaging refugees, mostly mothers and children, in cricket-in-the-park sessions three days a week.
“These refugee mothers are actually going to make the Ukrainian national team in a few years,” said Olivier, whose own escape from Kyiv, along with his four pet dogs, is the subject of a documentary.
Olivier also plans to host a ‘Ukrainian Freedom Cup’ with teams from Serbia, Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic in Zagreb next month.
Olivier said the consequences for the game in Ukraine would be dire if the ICC rejects the membership application.
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“This will be the end of cricket in Ukraine,” he said.
Lord’s Taverns, a British charity, and the MCC Foundation, the charitable arm of Cricket’s Parliamentarians, have supported the UCF, but sponsorship funding has run out.
ICC membership would make the UCF eligible for government funding and could attract new sponsors.
“It will be a snowball effect,” said Olivier.
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