The International Cricket Council on Thursday unanimously adopted “an extensively revised constitution”.

The changes to the constitution included the the adoption of new membership criteria, and the appointment of a female Independent Director with full voting rights, and a Deputy Chairman.

The decision was taken during the ICC’s annual conference in London, in which world cricket’s governing body also decided to award Afghanistan and Ireland Test status.

The ICC said in a press release that its Membership Committee will consider all future requests for membership, whether full or associate, “against an objective set of criteria”.

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The ICC has also discarded its Affiliate Membership, which means there will be only Full and Associate Members. All previous Affiliate Members have been awarded Associate Membership.

In addition to this, every board member will have equal votes. A two-thirds majority will be necessary for a resolution to be approved.

The ICC also unanimously approved a new revenue sharing model, “giving greater equality in the distribution” of its income. According to the new model, the Board of Control for Cricket in India will receive $405 million across the eight-year cycle from 2016-2023 as opposed to the $570 million it used to get earlier.

The ICC also voted unanimously to expel the United States of America Cricket Association and will outline a process to establish a new governing body for cricket in the country.