Senior ICC officials Chris Tetley and Claire Gurlong have resigned after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2024. The resignations came a week ahead of the ICC’s annual meeting which is set to take place in Colombo.
Chris Tetley, Claire Furlong resign after T20 World Cup 2024
With the ICC annual conference set to be organized next week, two senior officials of the ICC have resigned. The World Cup tournament in the USA, particularly in New York, was a major project of the ICC and the two officials were closely involved in it.
ICC’s Head of Events, Chris Tetley, and the general manager of marketing and communications, Claire Furlong resigned immediately after the conclusion of the ICC tournament and a week before the conference in Colombo.
“Mr Khimji wrote a letter to all the members and highlighted the conduct and expenses during the USA leg of the T20 World Cup. A lot of action around this was expected during the ICC meeting in Sri Lanka later this month but the resignations have already started coming in,” says a source close to developments.
According to reports, the resignations are several months old. A source also claimed that both Tetley and Furling decided to leave ICC at the end of the last season itself, but stayed on due to the T20 World Cup 2024.
The source went on to add that the two quit some time back but stayed with ICC for a few months to ensure a smooth transition.
“Money was being spent left, right, and center without any vision. They were spending thousands of dollars on activations at a single site and failed to attract encouraging responses. There was no planning whatsoever. Few individuals chose to spend money the way they wished to,” says a senior USA Cricket official.
USA were the co-hosts of the tournaments and none of the current office bearers had any say during any stage of the tournament as all the work was carried out by ICC employees.
T20 USA Inc which had people added to ICC officials, did all the work of the tournament in the USA and had Brett Jones in charge of the CEO. “From where did Brett Jones come? He recently moved to the USA from Australia and was appointed CEO of a firm responsible for delivery in the USA. He is very close to Chris Tetley and no wonder he got a high position,” adds the USA cricket official.
ICC’s annual conference will take place on July 19-22 and the associate’s meeting will be scheduled for the opening day is likely to witness a lot of discussions around the conduct of the T20 World Cup. The next three days will see meetings of the CEC, F&CA, and informal meetings and will culminate with the board meetings and the AGM on the final day.
The senior officials were closely involved in organizing the T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and the West Indies. This is likely about the scrutiny of the matches hosted at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
The stadium was dismantled after the conclusion of the matches under a lot of discussion. Many ICC members seemed to be raising the issue regarding the pitches at the ICC meeting.
The New York Stadium hosted eight of the 16 games allotted to the USA. Those matches were low-scoring with teams successfully defending targets below 140.
