The International Cricket Council will extend their trial of the umpire decision review system in four upcoming Test series.

In a two-day board meeting in Dubai, the governing body confirmed the series between New Zealand and West Indies in December, India and Pakistan in January/February, West Indies and England and South Africa and Australia - both in February/March - will use the system which was recently pioneered in the Sri Lanka versus India series.

The aim is to expose the system to as many referees, umpires and players as possible ahead of a decision on whether it should be implemented permanently.

That will be debated by the ICC's cricket committee next year.

Official and unofficial cricket

The ICC Board received an application for approval from the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

The Board resolved to adjourn its considerations to allow for discussions between Shashank Manohar, the President of The Board of Control for Cricket in India, and representatives of the ICL.

Mr Manohar agreed to provide the Board with a full written report of those discussions in due course.

New regulations governing official and unofficial cricket were also discussed following work by a sub-committee made up of ICC Head of Legal David Becker, Shashank Manohar, Giles Clarke, Norman Arendse and Lalit Modi.

It was agreed that a final draft be submitted to the directors for consideration and approval.

Umpire decision review system

The ICC Board reviewed a report on the umpire decision review system, which was trialled during the Sri Lanka - India Test series earlier this year.

It agreed to extend the trial to the following four upcoming series, pending agreement from the relevant chief executives:

New Zealand v West Indies two Tests December

India v Pakistan three Tests January/February

West Indies v England four Tests February/March

South Africa v Australia three Tests February/March

The idea of further trials would be to provide exposure to the system for as many match referees, umpires and players as possible ahead of a decision on whether it should be implemented permanently. That would be something to be debated firstly by the ICC's Cricket Committee, in April/May next year.

Future Tours Programme (FTP) post-2012

With the current FTP due to run out in May 2012, the ICC Board discussed further the concept of an alternative structure to bilateral tours, including the possibility of an enhanced Test championship.

The concept is something that has been previously looked into by both the ICC Chief Executives' Committee (CEC) and the ICC Board during meetings in Dubai in June/July and September.

It was agreed to look at refinements to the model for further consideration by the CEC in December and then the ICC Board in January 2009.

Olympics

The Board discussed the possibility of cricket being part of a future Olympic Games.

It was agreed that ICC management continue research on the matter and present to the Board at a later date.

If cricket wished to be part of the 2020 Olympic Games then it would have to make an application to the International Olympic Committee before 2013.

ICC World Cup Qualifier 2009

The Board was told that the Emirates Cricket Board, the appointed host for the above event, had written to the ICC stating it would be unable to stage the tournament in April 2009 because not all venues required would be ready in time.

On that basis, the Board accepted the recommendation of the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee that, subject to agreement by Cricket South Africa, the event take place there, at the same time of the year as originally scheduled.