How Many Countries in the World Play Cricket?

The International Cricket Council (ICC), initially established as the Imperial Cricket Conference on 15 June 1909 at Lord's, is the global governing body of the game. Its founding members were Australia, England, and South Africa. In the early years, only Commonwealth countries could become members of the Imperial Cricket Conference. 

India, New Zealand, and the West Indies joined in 1926, while Pakistan became a member in 1953 after India's partition.

In 1965, the governing body changed its name to the International Cricket Conference. This change also allowed countries outside the Commonwealth to join. That year, Fiji and the USA became the first associate members of the governing body. 

As of 2024, the ICC has 108 members, with 12 full members and 96 associate members. Of these, 8 associate members have been given One Day International status.

Full Members of the ICC

Full members of the ICC are the organizations responsible for managing cricket in a specific country or region.

These full members have the authority to send their teams to compete in official Test matches. They also have full voting rights in ICC meetings and automatically qualify to participate in ODIs and T20Is.

At present, there are 12 full members in the ICC. In April 2021, the ICC gave permanent Test status to the women's teams of all full member nations.

Australia, England, and South Africa were the first full members, all joining on 15 June 1909. Australia and England played the first Test match in 1877, while South Africa earned Test status in 1889. India, New Zealand, and the West Indies became members on 31 May 1926.

India's Test debut came in 1932, New Zealand’s in 1930, and the West Indies’ in 1928. Pakistan followed on 28 July 1952, playing its first Test in October of the same year.

Sri Lanka joined on 21 July 1981, gaining Test status the following year. Zimbabwe became a full member on 6 July 1992, playing its first Test in October 1992. Bangladesh, the latest Asian entrant before the 21st century, joined in June 2000. In 2017, Afghanistan and Ireland became full members, with Afghanistan playing its first Test in 2018 and Ireland just a few months earlier.

Associate Members 

Associate members are countries where cricket is well-established, but they don't qualify for full membership in the ICC. There are 96 associate members in total.

Before 2019, all associate members could participate in the World Cricket League, which was a series of international one-day matches managed by the ICC. However, from 2019 onwards, this was replaced by two new leagues: the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 and the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League. Additionally, there are ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier tournaments, which serve as a pathway for teams aiming to qualify for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Until April 2018, only teams that qualified through these events were given T20I status. But in April 2018, the ICC granted T20I status to all its members, starting on 1 July 2018 for women's teams and on 1 January 2019 for men's teams.