The Malawi Cricket Union (MCU) has been re-admitted as a member of the African Cricket Association (ACA) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) following progress the newly elected executive committee has made.
According to MCU president Vivek Ganesan, they have fulfilled all but one of the 15 conditions the continental body gave them.
He said they are yet to present audited accounts, which the auditing firm, KPMG, is expected to finalise by end of April.
“We have presented almost all the necessary documents and we are back as ACA affiliates. However, the ACA chief executive officer, Cassim Suleiman, said we shall be officially readmitted after KPMG completes auditing our accounts sometime in April,” said Ganesan.
ACA suspended MCU in 2011 for failing to account for funding amounting to $80 000 (over K30 million at current exchange rate) meant for cricket development in the country.
The suspension came in the wake of an audit by ACA that exposed irregularities on how the funding was used.
Following the suspension, MCU could neither participate in international events nor access funding from ACA.
Nevertheless, the national cricket team, which has dropped from position 44 to 110 out of the world’s 113 cricket playing countries, will be relegated from Division Two to Division Three or Four due to inactivity.
The Malawi national team was promoted to the lucrative ICC Africa World League Division Two after winning the Africa World League Division Three Championships the country hosted at Country Club Limbe (CCL) in October 2009.
Among the documents that have so far been presented to the ACA are about the MCU’s updated constitution, operational structure, finalised 2011-2013 accounts, the 2014 operational budget, assurance on an operational secretariat, proof of girls and junior men’s involvement in the sport, code of conduct policy, anti-racism, anti-doping and code of ethics, which were non-existent in MCU.
The new MCU executive board was ushered into office during elections on December 5 2013 in Blantyre.
