The International Cricket Council (ICC) governs the sport of cricket. It enforces the rules and regulations of cricket and takes the necessary action when any member country or cricketer breaches those rules and regulations. The ICC members fall into three categories. Those are full members, associate members and affiliate members. The governing bodies of the ICC recognize cricket playing countries entered into the full member category. The associated members come from the ICC recognized cricket playing country’s governing bodies but who do not qualify as full members. The associated members too are ICC recognized governing bodies of a country that play cricket following ICC regulations and rules but have not received the first two category memberships.
At present, the ICC has recognised three versions of cricket playing: Test Cricket, One Day (50 over) and 20-Over cricket. For a test match, there should be two teams with 11 players on each team. A captain of each team should be one of from the 11 players. Before the toss, each captain has to nominate players for his team including four extra substitute players to the match referee. The match referee will allow only these four substitute players whenever necessary during the game, but in particular circumstances, he can consider letting another one at the request of a captain.
There is one Vice Captain of each team from the 11 players. The team’s governing body of any ICC recognized country should inform the ICC when they appoint a captain for their team. In the event the captain of a team is unable to participate in a test match, the relevant governing body must appoint a new player for that particular match. A player for running on behalf of a batsman at a game will be given only at the discretion of the umpires of the game. If a fielder leaves the field during the play, the captain of the relevant team has to inform the reason for his leaving. He is not allowed to enter the field again without the umpire’s permission.
The ICC appoints a panel of umpires, and they will be responsible to the ICC. The ICC appoints two umpires to stand in each match, and they should not be from the two countries that play the game. The ICC must not appoint a match referee from the same countries that play the test match. The ICC manages three umpire panels, and they are the Elite Panel, International Panel and TV panel.
Quite a few rules and regulations cover all types of ICC cricket. They cover every aspect of the game such as how to select the ball, bat, pitch, the bowling conditions, batting conditions, fielding conditions, and much more. These same rules apply with regards to the number of players, how to nominate them, selection of balls, pitch, and bat are pretty much identical to the other versions of cricket, namely, the one day and 20 over matches. But many of them are vastly different from each other. The ICC has the power to remove a member country or player if they do not abide by the law of the ICC. According to the prevailing standard of the game, the ICC has the power to introduce new rules to improve the conditions of the game of cricket.
