The International Cricket Council on Thursday announced that all its 104 member nations will be granted T20I status.
ICC CEO David Richardson confirmed that the development will apply to both men and women’s cricket.
“All Women’s team matches will be awarded T20 International status on July 1st 2018. All the men’s team matches will be given T20 International status on January 1st 2019,” Richardson told reporters in Kolkata.
Currently, only the 12 full member countries and Scotland, Netherlands, Hong Kong, UAE, Oman and Nepal were eligible to play T20Is.
The ICC also plans to enforce stricter penalties for players breaking rules pertaining to ball-tampering and sledging. Richardson that the cricket committee felt that the current system of levying fines was not proving to be a deterrent.
Richardson also clarified that the ICC cricket committee was considering revising the Champions Trophy. He added that the 2021 Champions Trophy was likely to be a World T20.
The ICC is also set to formulate regulations so as to avoid clashes between bilateral cricket and T20 leagues. So far, a separate window is being set aside for the Indian Premier League.
Richardson said: “There are occasions where they [T20 leagues] are competing with international bilateral series. We need to look at our regulations to see how we can allow that to happen.”