The ICC: cricket's global governing body.

What the ICC does, and what it does not

The ICC describes itself, and the MCC describes it, as cricket's global governing body. It decides which matches count as Tests, ODIs and T20 internationals through its Classification of Official Cricket (current edition with effect from 1 July 2026), and it writes the playing conditions for international matches. It does not write the Laws of Cricket: that remains the MCC's role, as the MCC and the Laws page explains. The ICC decides for itself whether to adopt each change the MCC makes to the Laws.

Founding and early history

The ICC's own history pages say the body was founded in 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference, with England, Australia and South Africa as its only members. The ICC and the MCC both date the founding meeting, at Lord's, to 15 June 1909; the ICC says a second meeting about a month later, in July 1909, set the Conference up. The ICC says the body became the International Cricket Conference at its July 1965 meeting and was renamed the International Cricket Council in July 1989. Wikipedia gives the same years. One secondary source, seen in a search summary, gave 1987 instead of 1989 for the present name; the ICC's own page says July 1989.

The ICC history page records:

• Test status for West Indies (1928), New Zealand (1930), India (1932), Pakistan (1952), Sri Lanka (1982), Zimbabwe (1992) and Bangladesh (2000);
• South Africa's indefinite suspension from international cricket in 1970 over apartheid, and its readmission in 1991;
• the first men's Cricket World Cup, staged in England in 1975 by the body when it was still the International Cricket Conference;
• the International Women's Cricket Council, founded in 1958, merging with the ICC in 2005.

Full Members and Associate Members

On 22 June 2017 the ICC Full Council, meeting at The Oval, unanimously admitted Ireland and Afghanistan as Full Members, making them eligible to play Tests. The same meeting abolished the Affiliate category: since then there have been two tiers, Full Members and Associate Members, with former Affiliates becoming Associates. A trade press report of that decision (CricTracker) puts the Full Members at 12, the Test-playing members, after the 2017 admissions.

The 2017 constitutional changes also added an independent female director with a full vote, created a Deputy Chairman post, gave every Board member (the independent chair and director included) an equal vote, and set a two-thirds majority for resolutions.

Member counts, as the ICC states them

The ICC's July 2026 release says only that Mauritius is the 111th Member. The split of 12 Full Members and 99 Associate Members comes from a press report (Telangana Today), not from the ICC page. Whether the total of 111 includes the suspended members below is not stated on the ICC pages in our research.

Leadership

• Chair. Jay Shah began his term as ICC Chair on 1 December 2024, succeeding Greg Barclay, who had held the post since November 2020. Shah was elected unopposed as Independent Chair in August 2024; the BCCI and press reports give the date as 27 August 2024.
• Chief Executive. Sanjog Gupta became Chief Executive on 7 July 2025, the seventh in the ICC's history, after the Nominations Committee unanimously recommended him and the Board agreed. The ICC's July 2025 release thanked the outgoing Chief Executive, Geoff Allardice.
• Committees named in 2025 and 2026. The July 2025 Annual Conference elected three Associate Member representatives to the Chief Executives' Committee: Gurumurthy Palani (France Cricket), Anuraag Bhatnagar (Cricket Hong Kong, China) and Gurdeep Klair (Cricket Canada). The July 2026 conference named a Governance Review Committee (Devajit Saikia of the BCCI, Dr Mohammed Moosajee of Cricket South Africa and Dr Ros Rivaz, ICC Independent Director) and a Franchise Leagues Committee chaired by Tamim Iqbal of the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

Suspensions and notices

These are given as the ICC published them, with dates.

• USA Cricket, suspended 23 September 2025. The ICC Board suspended USA Cricket's membership with immediate effect, citing repeated breaches of its obligations under the ICC Constitution, including the lack of a functioning governance structure and too little progress toward recognition as the national governing body by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. The ICC said USA Cricket had been placed on notice in 2024. It also said US national teams keep their right to play in ICC events, including preparations for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, with the ICC or its representatives managing them for now, and that its Normalisation Committee would set the conditions for lifting the suspension.
• Cricket Canada, suspended 1 June 2026. The ICC Board suspended Cricket Canada's membership with immediate effect for what it called serious breaches of membership obligations, with Canada's teams remaining eligible for ICC events. This is from a CP24 report of the ICC statement; the ICC's own statement was not opened. The ICC's release of 15 July 2026 confirms that the Board approved conditions for reinstatement and that Cricket Canada stays suspended until they are fully met.
• France Cricket, placed on Notice in July 2026. The ICC's annual general meeting placed France Cricket on Notice for breaching the ICC Membership Criteria (ICC, 15 July 2026).
• Sri Lanka Cricket, July 2026. The same ICC release says Sri Lanka Cricket cannot for now be represented at ICC Board meetings while it works on a revised constitution, and that the Board urged it to hold elections as soon as possible.

The ICC and the MCC both say the ICC left Lord's for new headquarters in Dubai in 2005 (August 2005, according to the ICC). The national boards that make up the membership are on the national boards page.