Legendary Australia cricketer Lisa Sthalekar is new FICA president

Nyon (Switzerland), June 21 (IANS) Legendary Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar has been confirmed as president of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) at its executive committee meeting here.

The 42-year-old Lisa, who has played eight Tests and 125 WODIs and scored nearly 4,000 international runs across the three formats, joins the likes of Barry Richards, Jimmy Adams and most recently Vikram Solanki who have been FICA presidents since its formation.

"I'm extremely honoured and excited to be FICA's new president. We are entering a new phase of the game which covers more cricket than ever before for our male and female players. More countries are playing the game which demonstrates that cricket is certainly becoming a global game.

"I look forward to working on behalf of our member players' associations and players, and in particular to working with the ICC to ensure that all players have their rights protected and can work in partnership with administrators to make our game even better," said the India-born cricketer.

The executive committee meeting was held in advance of the FICA and World Players' Association Player Development Conferences and was the first in-person meeting of the group since the pandemic.

"After consultation with our members we are delighted to announce Lisa's appointment as FICA president, our first female president. Lisa was clearly the best candidate and her credentials are unparalleled as both a former player and broadcaster.

"Her previous roles as an independent director of FICA and on the Board of the Australian Cricketers' Association demonstrate her long standing commitment to the players' association movement and advancing player rights," said FICA executive chairman Heath Mills.