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| June 6, 2003 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1424 |
Aussies come up with plans to save one-day game
SYDNEY, June 5: The establishment of an international one-day cricket league was proposed here on Thursday by an Australian players’ body as a key part of a plan to save the sport from overkill.
The Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) blueprint outlined by ACA chief executive Tim May also envisages countries being restricted to 30 one-day internationals a year.
The plan was aimed at ensuring players were not burned out by too much one-day cricket, said May, a former Australian off-spinner.
May unveiled the plan after Australian one-day captain Ricky Ponting — who led his country to the World Cup triumph in South Africa earlier this year — pleaded with Australian cricket chiefs to reduce players’ on-field burdens.
Arriving home from the West Indies tour, Ponting said too much cricket, leading to premature burnout, was his team’s biggest fear.
And recently, outgoing International Cricket Council (ICC) president Malcolm Gray raised concerns about one-sided matches.
May, writing on his organisation’s website, said the game had been damaged by a glut of lopsided one-day matches across the globe — as well as the sheer number of games, seemingly haphazard in their organisation.
“Cricket authorities have identified that ... cricket is potentially damaged by the over-scheduling of uneven matches, yet they continue to put more of it out there for us to consume,” he said.
May said one-day matches were cricket’s saviour in terms of revenue, but the ICC risked damaging its “blue-chip” product by putting on too much cricket.
“There’s a series here and a series there, some best of five, some best of seven, some tri series — no real structure and apart from the sides competing, no real relevance,” he said.
“It is confusing, at times boring and, as Gray notes, it is getting predictable.”
May has proposed an international one-day competition every year, with the best nation being crowned champion.
Eleven competing teams would play each of their 10 opponents three times (at home, away and at a neutral venue) for a total of 30 matches.
A relegation and promotion system would encourage the developing nations.
“One-day cricket as we know it would be totally scrapped,” May said.
“This model would give meaning to One-day Internationals and would produce a more exciting competition.
“Indications are that this property would command far greater media rights and sponsorship money.”
Australian Cricket Board chief executive James Sutherland did not make any specific comment on the ACA plan.
But he conceded Australian players deserved a rest on their return from the West Indies.
“We have just had a very hectic cricket program, made more intense by the eight-week World Cup campaign which came on top of our normal peak time of the year,” he said.
“We are conscious of the need for players to now have a break. The only international cricket they face in the next four months is the Bangladesh series in Darwin and Cairns over 19 days from mid-July.—AFP
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