Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) officials said at a press conference on Saturday that Afghanistan’s status as a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) is a great achievement but that in order to maintain this status, ICC conditions will have to met continuously.
“Afghanistan has overcome many challenges to convince the ICC it deserves a place as Full Member of the council,” ACB chairman Atif Mashal said.
He said Afghanistan had received a unanimous vote from all ICC Board members on Thursday and that there had not been a single vote against the move.
Other ACB officials at the event said Afghanistan’s good performance, repeated success and the improvement of cricket in such a short period of time is what helped count in Afghanistan’s favor.
But ACB officials called on President Ashraf Ghani to help the board maintain this status. They also said fighting corruption was a key priority of the ACB. Mashal did not however give any details in this respect.
The ACB was granted Test status on Thursday night during an ICC Board meeting in London.
At the same time, Ireland was also given Test status – which now brings the total number of test nations to 12.