Dubai [UAE], November 7 (ANI): Following the success of The ICC Women's World Cup hosted in India, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the expansion of the tournament's next edition to ten teams, two teams up from eight, which featured in this year's edition, which also marked India's first-ever title win.

ICC Board approved a series of strategic measures designed to accelerate the global growth of cricket, strengthen the women's game, and reinforce the ICC's long-term development strategy.

The ICC reaffirmed its commitment to the growth of Women's Cricket and heralded the success of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 in India as a testament to its long-standing faith in the Women's game. Nearly 300,000 fans watched the event in stadia breaking the record for tournament attendance for any women's Cricket event. The tournament also witnessed viewership growth and new records being set for on-screen audiences across the world, with nearly 500 million viewers in India, as per a press release.

The ICC board, keen to build on the success of the event, agreed to expand the next edition of the tournament to 10 teams (from eight teams in 2025).

The ICC Board ratified the appointment of a number of members of the ICC Women's Cricket Committee, namely Ashley De Silva, Mithali Raj, Amol Muzumdar, Ben Sawyer, Charlotte Edwards, and Sala Stella Siale-Vaea.

The Board reviewed the ICC's ongoing engagement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games (LA28), as cricket deepens its footprint in the global multisport landscape.

It commended the efforts being made to include Cricket in regional multi-sport games, which would mean increased participation opportunities for countries. Cricket is now confirmed to feature across multiple multisport events through to 2028, including:

-Asian Games 2026 (Aichi-Nagoya, Japan)-African Games 2027 (Cairo, Egypt)-PanAm Games 2027 (Lima, Peru), where cricket will make its debut-At LA28, both the men's and women's T20 events will feature six teams each, comprising 28 matches in total.

The ICC Board confirmed its approval to issue an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for Video Gaming Rights, opening the door for leading global partners to collaborate with the ICC in delivering world-class, digital fan experiences. This marks a significant step forward in expanding the game's digital and entertainment footprint.

The Board also agreed to explore new commercial and innovation opportunities through a data consolidation project as part of the ICC's broader strategy to unlock new commercial streams. The project will focus on leveraging data clusters to drive AI-powered fan engagement and enhanced analytics as well as deepen consumer understanding across the cricket eco-system. The initiative will seek to support ICC Members with new commercial opportunities.

Reflecting the ICC's commitment to equitable growth, the Board approved an increase of nearly 10 per cent in distribution for funds to its Associate Members for the year 2026. The uplift in funding will enable these countries to invest further in domestic programmes, high-performance structures, and cricket development across emerging regions.

The ICC received its first update on 'Project USA', which was launched following the suspension of USA Cricket and in line with the ICC's directive that the commercial and development interests of players in the US national teams should not be negatively impacted by the suspension of the Board due to non-compliance with the ICC's regulations. The project is focused on building an optimised runway to Cricket's inclusion in the LA 2028 Olympic Games and enhancing performance pathways for the US national teams through ongoing participation in ICC Events. (ANI)