da realbet： FICA chief May says ICC needs to strike a healthy balance if international cricket is to retain its attraction for players
da dobrowin： Ajay S Shankar31-May-2009The rapid rise of Twenty20 leagues will soon force internationalplayers to choose between their countries and private franchise-basedTwenty20 events, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations(FICA), has warned. Tim May, FICA’s chief executive, said “more and moreplayers” have stated in surveys conducted by the association that theyhave “less of an attachment” to international cricket with the arrival oftournaments like the IPL.In an interview to Cricinfo, May said the ICC and its members should rework their Future Tours Programme (FTP) – the current version lapses in 2012 – to reduce international fixtures and create windows for domestic events such as IPL, which involves international players.”Simply, something must give or players will be faced to make a decisionbetween representing their country and playing in franchise-type Twenty20events,” May said. “A healthy balance of optimising commercialrevenues and player workload needs to be set by the ICC and its members inorder for international cricket to retain its attractiveness to players.The more Twenty20 events that are programmed in any calendar year, theeasier it will be for players to turn their back on international cricket.”The trend that we observe, through our surveys of players, is that moreand more players state that they have less an attachment to internationalcricket with the emergence of competitions such as IPL. More and morecricketers are frustrated with the clustered international calendar andthe time that is being spent away from wives, families and friends.”The international cricket calendar will soon be dominated by at least fiveTwenty20 leagues involving international players – IPL, P20 in England,Southern Premier League (SPL) involving South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Champions League, a possible IPL Season 2 and ICC events – and they will have to be accommodated along with Tests and ODIs.May also said the FICA was concerned about the new ICC Anti Doping Codethat has been modelled on norms specified by the World Anti DopingAgency (WADA). He said that the new ICC code, which came into force fromJanuary 1, has a “high, inherent risk” of catching players who aren’t”administratively inclined”.Tim May: “FICA have been staunch critics of the governance structure of the ICC for•Getty Images
“The ICC Anti Doping Policy now includes, as per a mandatory instructionfrom WADA, a requirement for players named in an ‘International RegisteredTesting Pool’ to provide whereabouts information,” May said. “Thisrequirement requires players to inform ICC 90 days in advance (eachquarter) a location and time that they will be available each day in thatquarter for testing. If the player is not in the location at the timespecified — the player will have a strike recorded against his name. Threestrikes and the player will have breached the code and can face a two-yearsuspension from the game.”Such a system has also raised concerns of privacy among players, May said.”Obviously, there are concerns on a privacy level and also concerns on apractical level – the administration responsibility is extreme and thewhole system, whilst designed to catch the drug cheat, has a high inherentrisk of catching athletes that just aren’t administratively inclined.”Then again, at a time when cricket’s headed for “an exciting future”, Maysaid, the ICC should also give FICA a more important role in the game’sgovernance, possibly in its all-powerful executive board. He said the ICCboard, which comprises senior ICC officials, and representatives ofits 10 Full Members and three associates, is “full of conflicts ofinterests”.”FICA have been staunch critics of the governance structure of the ICC fora long time,” May said. “It’s full of conflict of interests and doesn’tcontain a healthy balance of skills to address the key areas of both sportand commercial issues. Rarely are decisions made in the interests of thegame as a whole – they are typically made on “party lines” and what isbest for that particular directors’ constituency.”
