Cricket -resilient, strong, still developing: Lorgat

Dubai, July 24 : The ICC History Conference wrapped up in Oxford in the United Kingdom on Thursday night with ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat saying it confirmed cricket is 'resilient, strong and still developing.'

The conference, which took place over two days in the Nissan Institute at St Antony's College, looked back at the past 100 years of the game as part of the ICC's centenary year celebrations.

It featured contributions from an outstanding group of current and former administrators and players as well as leading academics, historians, statisticians and members of the media.

And reflecting on the gathering, Lorgat said: 'Exploring the history of the ICC and cricket over the past 100 years has been a fascinating and educational experience.

'What I believe it has shown us is that cricket is resilient, strong and still developing, especially as it is only 16 years since the ICC became an independent governing body following our separation from the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

'The conference showed that our great sport has faced challenges and some of those challenges have been substantial.

'However, it also showed that cricket has always coped with those challenges and has adapted to the extent that it is now stronger and more diverse than ever before.

'We have three formats, the ICC has more members than ever before – 104 of them – and within those members there are more people playing the game than at any time in our history.

'Lectures and discussions illustrated the enduring importance the game has had which goes way beyond the boundary rope and it is the task of us all, as stakeholders, to ensure it retains that importance as we take guard for our second century.

'The conference brought together a remarkable collection of experts from all over the world and I would like to thank all of them for taking part, as well as Oxford University and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for hosting this important event.'

Those experts included ex-ICC President Ehsan Mani, the organisation's first Chief Executive David Richards and Don Neely, the President of New Zealand Cricket, as well as former international greats Bishan Bedi, Angus Fraser, Sourav Ganguly, Clive Lloyd and Bob Willis.

Women's cricket past and present was represented by former England captain Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, who lifted the inaugural women's world cup in 1973, as well as current captain Charlotte Edwards and her team-mate Ebony Rainford-Brent, the latter duo part of the squad that holds the ICC Women's World Cup, the ICC World Twenty20 trophy and The Ashes.

From academia there was Sir Hilary Beckles, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Principal and Professor of Economic and Social History of the University of the West Indies, Brian Stoddart, the former Vice-Chancellor of Australia's La Trobe University and Boria Majumdar of the University of Central Lancashire, while leading journalists and cricket historians who played an active role in proceedings included Mihir Bose, David Frith, Gideon Haigh and Peter Hutton, the Chief Operating Officer of broadcaster TEN Sports.

There were also contributions from, among others, MCC curator Adam Chadwick, as well as David Kendix and Rob Eastaway, two of the men behind the Reliance Mobile ICC team and player rankings respectively.

The ICC Chief Executive was present throughout, and he was joined by ICC President David Morgan, ECB Chairman Giles Clarke and David Collier, the ECB Chief Executive, with the latter making the conference's closing remarks.

And Mr Lorgat added that the success of the ICC History Conference indicated there might be a need for similar gatherings in the future.

'Having staged this conference it is clear there is an appetite for this type of meeting and we will explore whether or not it may be feasible to repeat the exercise in the future, possibly in another country,' he added.