Tanzania has become the 25th Associate member of the International Cricket Council, following this week's success of its application to join the world governing body this week.
While the Tanzanians were successful, the Cayman Islands application was not. While the reasons for the failure of the Caymans' application are not known at this stage, it is typical for the ICC to ask an applicant to reapply at the next annual meeting in 12 months time without rejecting it completely. Nigeria, rumoured as a potential applicant, did not apply.
The membership of the ICC now stands at 72 following the acceptance of membership applications of 10 countries (proposing member in brackets):
Afghanistan (Pakistan), Bahrain (United Arab Emirates), Botswana (Zimbabwe), Bhutan (Nepal), Croatia (England), Indonesia (Australia), Lesotho (Zimbabwe), Maldives (Sri Lanka), St Helena (Zimbabwe), South Korea (Australia).
All of the new Affiliate members except St.Helena have been active in the ICC's development process in the last couple of years.
The Associates are believed to have discussed two major issues:
Whether to adopt the World League proposal as the means of qualifying for the 2007 World Cup instead of the ICC Trophy/regional qualifying format
A paper due to be presented by Associate Directors regarding World Cup funding and criteria applying to that. If approved by the Associates it will go forward to the Executive of the ICC for ratification.
The ICC was hopeful of announcing an outcome to the resolution of the boundaries of the Asian and East Asia-Pacific development regions after the annual conference this week.
The meetings this week were not expected to reveal any significant structural reforms to the ICC.