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ICC arrives at crucial decisions after two day meeting in India
By Marlon Fernandopulle
The International Cricket Councils (ICC) Cricket Committee Management concluded their two day meeting in India taking a number of crucial decisions and making recommendations to the ICC's Executive Board. The Chief Executives and Secretaries of the leading cricketing nations attended the meeting.

The issues discussed and debated at the meeting included the format for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in West Indies, the proposed Super Series, the relationship between the ICC and Player Associations, the most effective procedure for dealing with bowlers with suspected illegal bowling actions; and a review of the performance of the Emirates Elite Panel.

ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP 2007 - The Committee agreed to recommend a format to the Executive Board that would see a shorter tournament with fewer games than this year's event. Should this proposed format be adopted by the Executive Board it would see 16 teams divided into four groups of four at the group stage of the tournament followed by a Super Eights -_ stage before moving on to semi-final and Final stage.
Mr Mr. Malcolm Speed Chief Executive of the ICC said that the ICC would now consult with a number of stakeholders on this proposal before it is presented to the ICC's Executive Board for its decision in October.

ICC SUPER SERIES - The Committee discussed the proposal to stage an ICC Super Series featuring the number one ranked team in the ICC Test Championship table against a Rest of the World team in a Test match and the number one ranked team in the ICC ODI Championship table against a Rest of the World team in a three ODI match series.

This proposal has previously been agreed in principle and the meetings discussions focused on the financial and contractual aspects of this event.Should it proceed, the Super Series would take place in 2005 at the earliest with South Africa the preferred host of this tournament.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH PLAYER ASSOCIATIONS - The Committee has agreed to recommend to the Executive Board a proposal by ICC Management that the ICC recognises and deals with player associations on common player issues where the player associations are recognised by the individual Boards.

Where no player association exists or where it is not recognised by the relevant Board, the ICC would continue to deal with respective Board directly on these issues. Mr Speed again stressed that this was a proposal from CC-M that would require the approval of the Executive Board before it could be implemented.

ILLEGAL DELIVERIES PROCEDURE - The meeting considered alternatives to the current two-stage process used by the ICC to deal with players reported by umpires for suspected illegal delivery actions. Under the current process the player has six weeks following the initial report to undergo any necessary remedial work under the direction of his home Board and is permitted to continue playing during this period.

If a second report is lodged within 12 months of this period the player must then appear before the ICC's expert panel for decision and may be suspended from the game. Mr Speed said that CC-M examined whether this process should be reduced to a single stage but recognised that given the complexities of this issue that a two step process should remain in place. This matter has now been refereed to the Cricket Committee _ Playing (composed of former international players and officials) for its next meeting.

_This is a very complicated and difficult area. After discussing the issue in great detail, the view of the Committee is that the current process strikes the best balance in dealing with complexities of this issue,_ said Mr Speed.

EMIRATES ELITE PANEL PERFOMANCE - The Committee received a report on the performance of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and discussed the on-going development of umpires in the game.

ICC Management highlighted that the performance management system now in use focuses on developing consistency across the Emirates Elite Panel. CC-M subsequently agreed with a proposal to appoint a High Performance Manager for umpires and two additional Umpires Assessors to assist in the training and development of elite umpires. Mr Speed also reaffirmed the ICC’s position on the use of technology in the game.

Cricket is a game played by humans and the ICC’s believes that it should be umpired by humans,_ said Mr Speed. We do not want our umpires to become coat racks and, at this time, we believe that the use of technology in international cricket has gone about as far as it can go at this stage.

We will continue to examine the options that technology provides but it will not be introduced into the game where it diminishes the role of the umpire, cannot provide definitive answers or when it cannot be used across the cricket world.

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