London : Cricket has emerged stronger and more diverse than ever before as it coped with “substantial challenges” over the century by gone, observes the International Cricket Council.

The ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat said when the two-day ICC History Conference looked back at the past 100 years of the game as part of its centenary year celebrations, it was clear that the sport was “resilient, strong and still developing”.

“Exploring the history of the ICC and cricket over the past 100 years has been a fascinating and educational experience. What I believe it has shown us is that cricket is resilient, strong and still developing,” Lorgat said at the end of the conference.

“The conference showed that our great sport has faced challenges and some of those challenges have been substantial.

However, it also showed that cricket has always coped with those challenges and has adapted to the extent that it is now stronger and more diverse than ever before,” he said.

“We have three formats, the ICC has more members than ever before – 104 of them – and within those members there are more people playing the game than at any time in our history,” he added.