The International Cricket Council's Cricket Management committee meeting, which concluded in Mumbai on Friday, has made some radical proposals in an attempt to improve the state of world cricket.
Announcing five major issues that were discussed by the high-powered committee, ICC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed emphasised that the issues are based on preliminary thinking and would need to be ratified by the body's Executive Committee.
The five issues:
1. Format for the 2007 World Cup:
Speed said there was a long discussion on the format of the next World Cup, to be staged in the West Indies, and the managing committee proposed that 16 teams instead of 14, which played the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, will participate in 2007.
There would be four groups of four teams each which will play a round-robin league on the 14 separate islands of the West Indies. The top two teams from each group will qualify for a Super Eight league instead of the Super Six league, which prevailed until the last World Cup.
The eight teams will be placed in two groups and another round-robin league will be played to ascertain the semi-finalists, who will then play to reach the final.
The advantage, according to the ICC, is that this format will have 42 games played in a period of 40 days instead of the 54 games played in 44 days. The weaker teams will play just three games instead of the six they played in the 2003 World Cup.
The flip-side is that the quality of cricket suffered immensely with 14 teams playing in the 2003 World Cup. Adding another two weak teams to the existing five teams would take away the excitement of close matches.
The ICC, however, argues that with the good showing of Kenya, Canada and Namibia in the 2003 World Cup, it makes good sense to enhance the globalisation of cricket.
The proposal will be discussed in consultation with the Cricket World Cup organising committee, the players' representative bodies, the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) and the ICC Executive Board.
2. Volume of International Cricket:
The way cricket is played in the world is quite unusual, said Speed. He said that other than ensuring the code of conduct, and providing the umpires and match referees, there is little else that the ICC does for series between countries.
He said the Test and one-day structure needs to be reviewed. Next June, the ICC will discuss a new formula, if required, and implement it at the earliest.
3. Recognition of Player Associations:
Player representation has been a major issue, and cricket has been wrestling with it for some time now. Subject to review, the ICC chief executives decided to recognise player associations and move forward.
The matter is, however, not as easy as it sounds. The player associations, or the umbrella bodies which represent players, will have to be recognised by their respective Boards before the ICC can deal with them.
In effect, the ICC has agreed to recognise the Federation of International Cricketers' Association (FICA), which is the voice of most players on the international stage.
Speed explained that in case there is a dispute between a Board and its player representative, then the ICC would try to explain the decision made by the Board to the player associations, but added that the Boards would eventually have the final say.
The Board, he said, would be advised by the ICC about discussions between the players and the ICC. Issues such as clothing, anti-doping policy, illegal bowling action and volume of cricket would be discussed every six months with the player representatives.
Speed, however, refused to budge on the FICA's demand to allow a player representative on the ICC's Cricket Management Committee, saying there is widespread representation already.
"We are gradually getting better representation," he added.
4. Illegal bowling actions:
On the recommendation of the Cricket Playing Committee, which comprises 12 international cricketers who decide on the technical aspects of the game and its formats and rules, the ICC has proposed to cut short the illegal bowling action rule from a two-stage process to a single stage process from next year.
In the two-stage process, a player reported for suspect action would be sent back to his Board for remedial action. If he was called again after that, he would have to face an ICC panel.
In the one-stage process, the player will directly face the ICC panel.
The positive side of this recommendation is that the Boards will no longer be able to shield their players.
5. Umpires and Referees:
The ICC had set up an elite panel of umpires and match referees. Presently, there are eight umpires on the panel who officiate in all international matches. There is also a second level international panel, which has two umpires from each country to stand in one-day matches.
The ICC has now decided to include three umpires from each country instead of just two, keeping in mind the huge volume of cricket played round the year.
There will also be an umpires' coach, a high performance manager, to maintain umpiring standards. The umpires are assessed in detail every year by captains, referees and an independent umpire, Australia's Tony Crafter, who assesses every umpire. Henceforth, there will be three assessors instead of one to share the burden.