MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF

Azhar demands curbs on ODIs, at ICC meet

By our correspondent

At the meeting of international captains under the aegis of the International Cricket Council, Mohammad Azharuddin, representing India, called for an urgent review of the proliferation of one-day internationals, and urged some kind of curbs relating to the number of such games a country could be allowed to play in during a cricket season.

It will be recalled that a similar concern had been voiced, last year, by the then Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar. On that occasion, the ICC had laid down a vague guideline about the number of games a country could figure in, during a cricketing year.

However, India has in the past year played more than the guideline allows for. Thus, Azharuddin called for stricter guidelines, and measures to enforce them.

In this, he has been supported by his Pakistani counterpart, Rashid Latif, who also indicated that in his opinion, far too many one day games were being played of late, to the detriement of the health, and standards of play, of the players concerned. Another captain who added his voice to Azhar's was Arjuna Ranatunga, of Sri Lanka.

All three captains called, further, for a better ratio between Tests and one day games, and argued that increasingly, the traditional form of the game was taking a back seat to the one day variety.

The recommendations of Azharuddin and Latif will be discussed at an upcoming meeting of the ICC technical committee in June.

Meanwhile, two venues -- Sabina Park at Kingston, Jamaica and Indore, in India --have been placed on the ICC blacklist until further notice.

This means that pending an official review by the ICC, no international fixtures will be permitted to be held at either venue.

For those who came in late, it needs mentioning that a one day international against Sri Lanka was abandoned, at Indore, on Christmas Day last due to pitch conditions described by the match referee as "dangerous", while a similar situation led to the abandonment of the scheduled West Indies-England Test at Sabina Park in January this year.

Sir Clyde Walcott, chairman of the ICC cricket committee, expressed "extreme concern" at the two incidents, and indicated that the global body could, in the near future, put in place some kind of monitoring mechanism to examine all international pitches ahead of scheduled fixtures, in order to ensure against a repeat of the earlier scenario.

It was last year that the ICC, in a first step towards regularising facilities around the cricketing world, briefed match referees to include detailed takes on pitches and overall facilities at grounds where they do duty.

The ICC indicated that both venues would remain on the blacklist until an approved representative inspected both the pitch and ground conditions and pronounced them fit for international fixtures.

Walcott in his media briefing said that other immediate concerns for his body included excessive appealing and gesticulating at umpires, the taking of drinks breaks over and above those permitted by the rules of play, and increased incidence of players leaving the field for rest breaks, with substitutes taking their place.

The committee has, among other things, also decided to alter some of the playing conditions pertaining to Test matches:

1) Taking off on recent incidents where captains have asked bowlers to bowl into the rough way down the leg side, the ICC's cricket committee ruled that in future, such deliveries will be called 'wide'. One run will accrue -- more in case the wicket-keeper fails to gather and the batsmen run for it.

Explaining the move, Walcott said that in the opinion of the ICC, such tactics -- which he described as "negative" -- were becoming a major problem, and incidents were on the rise.

Interestingly, it was the captains themselves who raised the point, and demanded solutions.

As per the new rules in force with immediate effect, when an umpire considers that such a delivery down the wide of leg stump line is used deliberately to stifle scoring, the strict interpretation on wides already applied in the limited-overs game would be followed in Tests as well.

2) During Tests, players will in future be allowed to leave the field for treatment only for two overs. The cricket committee argued that the present condition, which allows players to leave the field for 15 minutes at a time without penalty, was being abused.

3) If at the end of 110 overs or more, an old ball needs to be replaced, it can be replaced only by a new ball. The cricket committee explained that cricket balls would in any event go very soft and tend to lose shape by the time that many overs were bowled. Some teams tend to use the ball even past that mark, using the softness to inhibit bounce and pace and ensure the ball doesn't come on to the batsman. The new rule is intended to prevent teams, which prefer to use an old ball, replacing it with one in a similar condition.

In other areas, the ICC confirmed that a new international umpire would be brought in for the England-South Africa Tests following the contretemps involving Steve Randell, who was scheduled to officiate.

Randell is now out on bail on bail on charges of indecency and of sexually molesting young girls. Following the charges against him, Randell was removed from the Australian Cricket Board's active umpiring list pending the outcome of the case.