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The ICC Board held the first of its scheduled 2012 meetings in Dubai on 31 January 2012 and 1 February 2012.  The major items considered or decisions taken were:

Independent Governance Review

Following adoption of the new ICC Strategic Plan in April 2011 which, inter-alia, identified the need for an independent governance review as one of the key initiatives to ‘Build a Bigger, Better Global Game’, the ICC Board received from Lord Woolf of Barnes and PricewaterhouseCoopers a 60-page report containing 65 recommendations and a transitional plan.

The report was presented at the meeting and, as was previously decided, the Board agreed to study the report in detail together with ICC Members and other stakeholders before fully considering the report and its recommendations at the next Board meeting in April 2012.

The recommendations are summarized into five main areas:

· Role of the ICC
· The ICC Board
· Ethics
· Membership, Board structure and Committees
· Funding

Until the report has been discussed by the Board at its next meeting, the ICC is not in a position to make further comment on the subject.

ICC President from 2014 onwards

Following Board discussions since October 2011 and consistent with recommendations in the Woolf Report, the Board passed a unanimous resolution recommending to the ICC Council an amendment to the ICC Articles of Association so that from 2014 the current Presidency role is split.

The recommendation creates a new system whereby the Presidency would be an Ambassadorial role appointed on a one-year rotational basis, while a Chairman would lead the Board.

The necessary amendments to the Articles of Association will be discussed at the next ICC Board meeting before being submitted for approval by the ICC Annual Conference in June. The Board will also consider the position and role, if any, of the ICC Vice President between 2012 and 2014. Accordingly, the nomination received of Mustafa Kamal, the Bangladesh Cricket Board president, for the ICC Vice-Presidency from 2012-14 will be considered as a part of this process.

Furthermore, Egon Zehnder, the International executive recruitment firm, have been appointed to conduct the search for the ICC Chief Executive who will replace Haroon Lorgat when he vacates the position at the end of the Annual Conference in June 2012.

Promotion of Test Cricket

A total of US $3.8m in prize money will be shared among the top four sides on 1 April 2013, 2014 and 2015, after the ICC Board approved a proposal to substantially increase incentives in the form of prize money to promote Test match cricket in the period before the ICC Test Championship event in 2017.

Haroon Lorgat said: ‘This worthy increase in prize money for the top four teams in the Reliance ICC Test Rankings can only be right. We are delighted at the growing interest and quality of Test match cricket and we must continue to promote the pinnacle form of the game before and beyond the Test Championship in 2017.’

Previously, the top team in the Reliance ICC Test rankings received a cheque for $175,000 but in future will receive a minimum of $450,000 rising to $500,000 in 2015. From 2016 there will be further increases in Test prize money.