A survey of 45 cricketers from the world's nine Test-playing countries shows 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 and released yesterday, found 56 percent of players were both not satisfied by the ICC's ability to deliver World Cup events and lacked confidence in the ICC.
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 poll findings prompted FICA's chief executive, former Australian cricketer Tim May, to label the ICC's committee structure "outdated" and call for a review.
"An independent review would determine what is the best and most applicable structure for cricket's international governing body," May told the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday. "There has been a growing amount of dissatisfaction amongst a wide variety of cricket stakeholders over the past 24 months, regarding the governance of our game."
Rather than blame the ICC's chief executive, Malcolm Speed, May said that the council's various subcommittees, consisting of delegates from member nations, were largely at fault.
"These committees' compositions are more than likely to deliver outcomes that are decided on party lines and the self interest of its members, rather than the overall good of the game," May said.
The survey found 89 percent of players rated the recent World Cup in the Caribbean as either average (44 percent), below average (38 percent) or poor (8 percent).
Only three percent of respondents said the tournament was excellent, while 8 percent rated it good.
The World Cup was criticized for being too long, having too many lopsided 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.
Fourteen percent of players said they had not been properly educated by the ICC on its anti-doping policy and 18 percent said they were not aware of their obligations under the sport's anti-racism code.
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