Cricketers are concerned that the amount of international cricket being played could be detrimental to the game.
The chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, Tony Irish, said on Thursday that the volume of cricket being played was one of the main concerns expressed by players in the recent World Cup 2007 survey conducted by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (Fica).
Following the results of the survey, in which 56% of players polled said they had lost confidence in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) ability to govern the game, Fica called for an independent review of the governance of cricket.
”The survey was nothing new,” said Irish. ”Surveys like this are conducted at every ICC event, among players affiliated to Fica, which represents players from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies. The other teams at the World Cup did not have player associations, and were therefore not questioned.
”One of the chief concerns was the growing number of international one-day (ODI) tournaments.”
Irish said the ICC’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) was very good in principle, because it ensured that all cricket-playing countries were included in matches against the major teams. Under the FTP, all ICC full members are obliged to play a certain number of Test and ODIs against the other member countries.
”But the FTP does not put an upper limit on the number of matches to be played, and often the host country tries to increase its revenue with the introduction of triangular ODI tournaments, so that instead of playing five or seven ODIs on tour, the teams find themselves playing 11 or more.
”There is a danger of diluting the attraction of the game for commercial interests. We have to find a balance between cricket interests and commercial interests,” he explained.
Irish did not think the introduction of Twenty/20 matches in tour programmes would be too much of a problem.
”At the moment, there is a cap of two Twenty/20 matches on any tour, but I expect the interest in these matches to increase after the Twenty/20 World Cup in South Africa in September,” he said. ”But even if they raise the limit, I don’t think it will be too much of a problem, because very often specialist Twenty/20 players will be selected for these games.” — Sapa