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findings prompted FICA's chief executive, former Australian cricketer Tim May, to label the ICC's committee structure "outdated" and call for a review.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.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
RSS