The International Cricket Council on Friday confirmed that it accorded official status to three One-Day Internationals organised by the Afro-Asian Cricket Foundation next month.

"Yes, the decision was made at the recent Executive Board meeting," an ICC spokesperson said.

"There were several decisions made in the meeting. There was no specific reason for not mentioning this in the official statement," the spokesperson added.

The matches, between an African XI and Asian XI, are to be played on August 17, 19 and 21 this year. The venue is yet to be decided.

The ICC's decision to give official status to international matches involving an Australian team and the Rest of the World for the Super Series in October, as well as the Tsunami Relief benefit match in January earlier, has not gone down well with statisticians.

They have said that the move might benefit the world body commercially by attracting sponsors but it would lead to a plethora of records not comparable with the performances between two official Test nations.