A survey of 45 of the world’s top cricketers say most players were not impressed by this year’s World Cup and have little faith in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) ability to govern the game.
The survey, conducted by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) and released on Wednesday, found 56% of players were both not satisfied by the ICC’s ability to deliver World Cup events and lacked confidence in the ICC governing cricket.
Significant numbers also said they had not been educated properly on matters such as corruption, doping and racism.
Fica said the players’ responses towards the ICC’s governing the game were ”disturbing” and should be of ”great concern” to the controlling body.
”The ICC came across as out of touch with the rest of the cricketing world,” it said. ”The players’ growing opinion is that decisions are increasingly being made through self-interest and/or party alliances rather than what is best for the game.”
The survey found 89% of players rated the recent World Cup in the Caribbean as either average (44%), below average (38%) or poor (8%).
Only 3% of respondents said the tournament was excellent, while 8% rated it good.
The World Cup was criticised for being too long, having too many lop-sided matches, having a long and meaningless Super Eights stage and putting fans offside through a lack of atmosphere and steep ticket prices.
”The ICC should review the format, the length of the tournament and the need to ensure that the longest part of the tournament [Super Eights] consistently produces competitive cricket,” FICA said.
Australia’s win over Sri Lanka in the final was also marred by rain and the inability of the umpires and match referee Jeff Crowe to call the match off because of light, even though both sides had conceded the game over.
Fourteen percent of players said they had not been properly educated by the ICC on its anti-doping policy, 16% said they had not been adequately educated in anti-corruption matters and 18% said they were not aware of their obligations under the sport’s anti-racism code.
The survey was distributed to members of the Fica member nations, which include Australia and the elite cricket-playing nations.
The death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, the crisis in Zimbabwe, the ball-tampering row in last year’s England-Pakistan Test, rampant scheduling and the drug cases involving Pakistan bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif are among the problems to have confronted the ICC in the past year. — Sapa-AP