South African-born Kobus Olivier, the chief executive of Ukraine’s cricket board, believes that they meet the criteria to become an associate member of the International Cricket Council, and that cricket wouldn’t survive in the country should the entry be denied.
Ukraine is expected to get a second-tier membership at the ICC meeting this month and bag a Twenty20 International status. The war-affected country will also be entitled to funds from the international governing body, which has designated a sum of 30.8 million dollars for its 96 associate members this year.
61-year-old Olivier is confident that the country will be granted the associate member status by the ICC.
“We ticked all the boxes on Feb. 24 when the war started.
“I have so much belief in this process … and I am absolutely confident Ukraine will be an associate member of the ICC,”
the South African told Reuters.
The Ukraine Cricket Federation has been organising cricket over the last two decades, with a pool of 15,000 students, majority of them being Indians, at the senior level.
Olivier set up a base in Zagreb after fleeing Kyiv and is effectively running the UCF’s junior and women cricket programmes from the region while engaging refugees, mostly mothers and children, in cricket sessions three days a week.
“These refugee mothers are actually going to make the Ukrainian national team in a couple of years,”
said Olivier, whose own escape from Kyiv, along with his four pet dogs, is the subject of a documentary.
Meanwhile, Hardeep Singh, the UCF president, has made arrangements for national team players to train in India.
Olivier marks the upcoming meeting as a massive moment for the game’s future in the country, which he feels could take a major dent if the membership application is rejected.
“It will be the end of cricket in Ukraine,” he said.
The ICC membership would make the UCF eligible for government funding, and possibly attract new sponsors at a time the body needs it the most. Olivier is of the opinion that this decision will cause a ”snowball effect”.
