May 25, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 08, 1428

LONDON, May 24: An official review group set up to improve the standard of English cricket has recommended the restructuring of the national team management and reducing the number of games in domestic competition.

The recommendations were the most far reaching in a total 19 in the report published on Thursday and the only two not immediately endorsed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

“There are just two points which will need deliberation by the board, because they are at the heart of the matter,” review group chairman Ken Schofield said. “It is not unreasonable that any board would have a considerable period of time to review such recommendations.”

A seven-man committee was set up to review the sport in January after England lost the Ashes series 5-0 in Australia. It included former England captain Nasser Hussain and Schofield, the former executive director of golf's PGA European Tour.

The management structure would differ considerably from that in place right now.

The committee recommended a managing director be appointed to the national team with responsibility for choosing coaches and the team captain. He would look after team discipline and plan overseas tours, while a lone national team selector would travel with the squad, ending the policy of the captain and coach selecting the team.

A director of county cricket would also be appointed.

The recommendation that England play one fewer home Test each year and reduce the number of domestic games was “to enable players to maintain and develop their cricket skills and fitness levels during the season, and provide competition formats and regulations which as far as possible mirror the international game.”

That may mean the abolition of the Pro40 tournament – a two division competition of 40-overs-per-side matches. The format is unlike the Test, one-day or Twenty20 games played by national teams.

The ECB said its chief executive David Collier would soon report to the board to outline a process for restructuring the sport's management.

It also said the recommendation that one-day cricket be given more importance would be dealt with by an internal committee which would report later this year.—AP