The proposal to have the Saudi Cricket Centre (SCC) accepted as an Associate Member, the second-tier of countries within the ICC, was pre-approved by the Development Committee in October and was rubber-stamped during the meeting, held as part of the Annual Conference.

The ICC has, however, been forced to cancel a press conference scheduled for today to unveil the decisions taken during the Conference as the process appears to have taken longer than was originally planned.

The SCC, which has been an Affiliate Member since 2003, recently signed a sponsorship deal with cash transfer company MoneyGram and invested a large amount of the income generated from the agreement in staging a domestic tournament.

Around 1,800 players from 106 clubs across the country took part.

“I congratulate Saudi Cricket Centre on becoming an Associate Member of the ICC and hope it will continue to play its positive and active role in promoting and developing the game in its territory,” ICC chairman Shashank Manohar said.

The Full Council, the ICC’s ruling body, also agreed to ratify the suspensions of the United States Cricket Association (USACA) and the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN).

The USACA was suspended in June due to an ICC Review Group expressing “significant concerns about the governance, finance, reputation and cricketing activities of USACA”.

The CAN have been in cricketing exile since April after the ICC temporarily banned them because of Government interference in the organisation’s affairs.

Manohar confirmed that ICC Board members will be part of delegations which will travel to the two countries to assess the situation later this year before they report back during October’s meeting.

“Both Nepal and the US are important Members of the ICC as they have tremendous talent and potential,” the ICC chairman added.

“The ICC, as part of its game and market development strategy, will continue to provide the countries with as much support as possible so that they can put in place good governance and cricket structures.”

Bermuda Cricket Association head Neil Speight has been replaced as an Associate Member representative on the Full Council by Cricket Ireland chairman Ross McCollum, while Singapore’s Imran Khawaja and Francois Erasmus of Namibia retained their positions.