The International Cricket Council is the chief governing body of Cricket and as of 2022 ,only 12 nations have been permitted to play international Test match cricket. The ICC also has 37 Associate Members and 56 Affiliate Members.
Teams from all the major countries of the world take part in several ICC tournaments . Australia, India, England and West Indies have been the most successful cricket teams and are also the oldest members of the ICC.
Apart from the 12 Test playing nations, 4 teams namely the Netherlands, Nepal, Scotland and UAE have the ODI and T20I status while Oman and Hong Kong have the T20I status. Teams like Kenya, Bermuda, Canada and Namibia have played Cricket World Cups but currently, do not hold the status of an international team. In the 105 members strong family of the ICC.
However, there are 6 teams in the history of cricket who have been suspended and removed from the ICC members list and can no longer play cricket under the guidelines of ICC. We’ll discuss about those 6 teams.
Brunei
The small Asian country, Brunei became an affiliate member of the ICC in 1992 after the formation of its cricket board, Brunei Darussalam National Cricket Association. They played their first match in 1996 in the ACC trophy. The Brunei team had only played the ACC trophies . Their best finish was a 6th place finish in the 2009 ACC trophy Challenge. They played their last ACC Trophy Challenge in 2010 in Thailand before being removed by ICC.
Cuba
Cuba attained the affiliate status in the ICC in the year 2002-03 and made their T20 debut against Sint Marteen in 2008. The Cuban Cricket Commission was removed by the ICC in the year 2013 with the reason being their failure to demonstrate a suitable administrative structure to conduct its affairs under the guidelines of ICc. Cuba had won 2 out of their 8 matches against the St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2008.
Tonga
Tonga became the affiliate member of the ICC in 2000 and stayed as its affiliate member for 14 years. Aiveni Taakimoeaka was the captain of the cricket team of Tonga. They had also tried to make it to the 2011 World Cup but failed to do so after losing in the qualifiers. The Kingdom of Tonga was removed as an affiliate member in 2014 due to the cricket association’s failure to comply with membership requirements.
East Africa
Very few fans would know this fact but the team of East Africa was amongst the 8 teams who had played the first ever Cricket World Cup in 1975. They were the associate member of the ICC from 1966 to 1989 and were later replaced by the team of East and Central Africa. East Africa played its last match against Kenya in 1986.
East and Central Africa
The East and Central African team took the place of the East African team and stayed as an associate member of the ICC for 14 years before the formation of 4 teams who were playing together under the name of East and Central Africa. This African team had played its first ever match against Denmark in 1990 but exited the ICC in 2003.
West Africa
The West African team was a union of 4 African nations namely Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone and was the associate member of the ICC from 1976 to 2003. Later on, it was replaced by the individual teams of the above 4 countries with Sierra Leone being the latest to be awarded the status of an associate member.