Posts tagged with ‘ICC’

You may have noticed the name of Boyd Rankin featuring in the recently announced England Performance Programme. Rankin has already played international cricket for Ireland, and could become the next of their players to be poached across the Irish Sea, after Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan. Understandably, Cricket Ireland are not best pleased particularly as it will result in Rankin missing cricket for them whilst he is at the ECB’s training camps.

Forty-over cricket is considered so important by the ECB that they have decided to go one step further than simply scrapping their 50-over competition to protect it. Now, the ECB is asking the ICC to change the international 50-over format on their behalf.

The Ashes was a fascinating series, but it will not be remembered for the quality of the umpiring. With the referral system to be phased in by the ICC, should they be looking to technology or just improving the quality of the umpires? I feel that there is an argument for both.

I have tried to keep my distance from the anti-doping controversy between the BCCI/Indian players and the ICC/WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). But the news that the ICC has formed a committee to resolve the dispute has forced my hand.

A top effort from the Vice President of the Minnesota Cricket Association, Masaood Yunus, to enthuse Americans about cricket ahead of the Western Conference Championship.

The ICC is not a world cricket governing body. It is a cosy front for the national boards. They can use it to appear to be doing the right thing by cricket whilst they sit about playing power games or congratulating each other on how much money they are raking in.

Australian spin bowling ain’t what it used to be, despite the best efforts of Nathan Hauritz during the Ashes. So, a Spin Summit has been held to thrash out a solution to the problem. Aside from encouraging the selection of attacking spin bowlers in age group and grade cricket, their main concern appears to have been ensuring that pure, unblemished young spinners aren’t led astray and corrupted by that evil of all cricketing evils, the Doosra.

Allan Donald would like to see ball tampering “preparing” legalised by the ICC. Proper fast bowlers are now an endangered species, so they should be allowed to do whatever they want with the ball to help level the playing field.

The MCC think that Test cricket is in danger of dying out. The cricket world is managing to wring it’s hands about the danger of IPL-alikes springing up all over the world whilst busily trying to rake in the money they bring at the same time. Are they missing a simple law of business?

The success of the recent World Twenty20 has intensified the debate surrounding the future of test cricket and what needs to be done to maintain it’s position as the pinnacle of cricket. There is little argument amongst players (Chris Gayle excepted) and officials that there is where it should remain. But how to achieve this?