David Morgan, Members' Forum speech

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good afternoon.

To start, I was to endorse Haroon’s earlier comments about Malcolm Speed.

Malcolm has been an exceptional Chief Executive at a time of significant transition. During his tenure the ICC has evolved from a minor entity to a professional body capable of running one of the biggest and most complex global games.

Malcolm’s imprint on cricket will endure his departure, particularly through the strong team of experienced and committed administrators here in Dubai, many of whom I am sure will continue to serve all aspects of the game extremely well.

One of the most striking things about Malcolm has been his total commitment to serving our sport and leaving it in a better state than when he became involved. As a long-serving director of the ICC, it was always comforting to know that the Chief Executive cared so much for the sport and always put its interests at the heart of his decision-making.

Whatever the next phase of his life holds, alongside Alison and his family, I am sure you will all join with me in hoping that it is a happy time for them all.

Well, what about this week, the first time we have held our annual conference away from Lord’s?

I remember when it was announced we would be in Dubai this year, my first time as ICC President, and Steve James, the former Glamorgan and England batsman, wrote it would be like making my Test debut at Derby.

Well, all I can say is we have been looked after superbly with excellent facilities and I, and all of you I’m sure, have had a profitable and worthwhile experience.

In my opinion it has been a very good week. There has been plenty of positive discussion which, I hope and believe, will start to shape the future direction of our organisation.

As Haroon has already said, we have been in a position this week to announce a massive increase in funding to all our Members, something that will safeguard the medium-term future of all 101 of you.

That funding is spread over seven years, from 2009 to 2016 and so, fast forward to 2016 - Will cricket be a prosperous sport?

Will cricket be a sport that is going from strength to strength all over the world?

Will cricket be a sport in which our three forms of the game – Test match or first-class cricket, one-day cricket and Twenty20 continue to coexist to make it a vibrant and diverse sport with something to appeal to everyone’s tastes?

Will nation versus nation remain the lifeblood of cricket?

Will cricket be a sport united in its desire to take part in major multisport events and to re-enter The Olympic Games after a gap of more than 100 years?

And will cricket be a sport in which all our Members are pulling together towards a common goal rather than one in which members seek to look after their own interests without a thought for others?

Lots of questions, yes, but I believe they are all fundamental ones.

The answers to them are all in your hands and what the future of the sport demands is that you answer them wisely.

Why? Because when our stakeholders – that is spectators, commercial partners, players and ex-players, Governments and, perhaps most importantly of all, our successors as administrators – look back on what we have done, not only in 2016 but in 20, 30, even 50 years’ time, I want them to be able to say, hand on heart, “Yes, those administrators acted wisely and, thanks to them, we are reaping the benefits at every level.”

Of course, running the sport is a two-way street, a collaborative process between us as the administrators at the centre and you as members – you make the policies and we enact it. We exist because of you, to serve you, but that begs the question of what sort of ICC you want.

Do you want a toothless tiger of a body that is only useful to blame for any failings when things go wrong?

Or do you want a strong governing body invested with the power to run and make decisions based on the best interests of the game and a body you can trust to do just that?

Now, to help you answer this question you will need to consider these further questions – and all of them will help determine our success as a partnership, the ICC and its members, moving forward.

Do you truly know all that the ICC does? Haroon helped with some of that earlier especially the detail relating to development, anti-doping, anti-corruption, diversity and women’s cricket.

What do you as members, our key stakeholders, want the ICC to do for you?

Can the ICC do things better? If your answer is yes then what are those things and how can we improve?

And just as importantly – given this is a two-way process – what can you, as ICC members, do for the governing body?

As an administrative body, the ICC does not succeed in making everything right, but by the same token it is not an ivory tower or an effigy to be burnt at every convenient opportunity when someone or something does go wrong. The ICC is all of us, you, me and every one of our 104 members. Please, when you leave here today, remember that and help ensure that each of your stakeholders realizes that too.

Now I have asked a lot of questions of you through the course of this speech but that has to be right because I am here to challenge you, so that all of us are constantly asking ourselves what we can do better for the good of our sport.

Excellence is a moving target and in order to keep hitting the target we must be constantly re-focussing to ensure we give it our best shot. Whatever we do, good or bad, is our legacy to future generations.

And as for those questions, I do not intend them to be empty rhetoric which will be spoken today and forgotten about tomorrow. They are fundamental questions and over the next 12 months, along with Haroon, I intend to seek answers to them.

We will travel to Full Members and many of the leading Associates, as well as other Associate and Affiliate Members.

We need to know what you want the sport to look like in the future and what role you want the ICC to play in it and what role do you believe you can play in that future.

And when we come to see you we want it to be a two-way street.

We will want to meet your Boards, your executives and non-executives and your key stakeholders – by which I mean players, ex-players, media and sponsors – and even your Governments.

We want to ensure those stakeholders are aware of what the ICC does.

We will ask them if we can do anything differently or better and also ask what you and your stakeholders can do for the ICC.

And at the end of our travels I intend to report back to you to let you know all that we have found, starting with – I hope – a better mutual understanding of our roles within the modern game.

I believe we will have a better idea of how best to serve you – and, I hope, you will have a better idea of how to help us.

Before I do stand in front of you again, however, there is plenty to look forward to.

In just over two months we have the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan, a new leaner version of the event that is being staged for the sixth time.

Eight teams, 15 matches and 17 days, a real best-of-the-best contest with a new round robin format of two groups, each of four teams, with every match therefore vital to a side’s chances of progression. It should be a great example of the best aspects of 50-over cricket.

Two months later we have the ICC WCL Division 4 in Tanzania with the top two teams from that event going forward to next January’s Division 3 tournament in Argentina. And the two sides that come through that latter event will come here, to Dubai, for the ICC World Cup Qualifier, with places at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011as the prize.

Meanwhile, in March, there’s the ICC Women’s World Cup in Australia, the first staging of the event under the ICC’s banner, bringing together the top eight sides in the women’s game.

And those eight teams come back together in June, along with 12 men’s sides, for the ICC World Twenty20 in England, the first time we will have run a men’s and women’s event side by side.

There will be Associate representation in the men’s event and the sides that make it through will be determined in a qualifying event in a month’s time in Belfast, in Northern Ireland.

All of these tournaments, at their various levels, will showcase all that is best about the game of cricket and with next year the ICC’s centenary then that, too, should be a perfect opportunity to celebrate all the good things that the sport stands for.

Throughout the year every one of you will be doing something to mark the ICC’s 100th birthday and by doing that you will be helping to reaffirm cricket’s place as what is surely the second biggest sport in the world.

The founder of the ICC, which in 1909 stood for the Imperial Cricket Conference, was a South African, Sir Abe Bailey. I wonder what he would think if he came back today and saw what the organisation he drove into existence with just three members – Australia, England and South Africa – has become.

Sir Abe’s legacy is us, this gathering over the past week.

Now what we need to do is ensure that when people look back on our work at the helm of this great game, they will do so acknowledging that we did an excellent job in continuing to sustain this organisation, steering a wise course into the future as we did so.
If that is the case then our legacy will be that we truly will have ensured that cricket is a strong sport ready, willing and able to become still stronger.

Thank you.