The ICC has quietly shelved its end-March Board and committee gathering in Doha, choosing safety over schedule while fighting continues in West Asia.
“The duty of care to our directors and staff comes first,” an ICC official told me on Monday, confirming that several sessions – notably the finance committee – will now be held online “during the next few weeks”. A final call on a face-to-face get-together in April will hinge on whether regional airspace re-opens in time. For now, nobody fancies chancing a connecting flight that might not leave.
The abandoned Doha window, 25-27 March, would have brought together Board directors, chief executives, committee members and senior ICC staff. Three chunky topics sat high on the agenda:
• The next set of global broadcasting rights – the current ICC-JioStar deal expires in 2027.
• Early horse-trading for the 2028-32 Future Tours Programme.
• A clearer pathway for Olympic qualification ahead of Los Angeles 2028.
Informal FTP chats have already started, with one Full Member chief exec admitting, “Everyone’s sounding each other out – you can’t leave your calendar blank for long.”
This would have been the ICC’s first formal visit to Qatar, a country keen on the game – local administrators claim participation has grown by “447 per cent” over the past decade – yet flights in and out remain patchy. With airlines re-routing or pulling services entirely, the logistics became a non-starter.
The regional turmoil is hitting fixtures, too. Afghanistan’s white-ball tour of Sri Lanka, pencilled in for 13-25 March in the UAE, is almost certain to be pushed back. One Afghanistan board source said, “Everything’s on ice until we know teams can fly.”
Most directors seem relaxed about firing up Zoom again. “Not ideal, but nobody wants to sit in an empty departure lounge,” a senior administrator joked. In the circumstances, that feels about right.
