Call For International Cricket Player Body Growing (5 Jan 1997)

5 January 1996

Call for international cricket players body growing

By Ihithisham Kamardeen

PERTH, Jan 4: The calls are growing louder by the day for the urgent formation of an International Cricket Players` Association (ICPA) for world`s elite players to have a greater say in the running of the game.

Waqar Younis, one of the game`s finest fast bowlers, joined the call for fewer one-day and spare international fast bowlers the whip to save and prolong their careers. "Cricket is getting too much," Waqar said after a shoulder injury ruled him out of Friday`s one-day clash against the West Indies at the Gabba. There are too many one-dayers going. There is new pressure on you, every day, said Waqar, a veteran of 147 one-dayers.

Mark Taylor and his West Indies counterpart Courtney Walsh will involve Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram in informal talks to consider the rights and entitlements of the international cricketers.

Following the recent outcry by the Australian Cricket Players` Association (ACPA) after meaningless one-day series - such as recent visits to Sri Lanka and India - the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) is considering to remove it from future itineraries.

Waqar, 25, is nursing a strained bowling arm. "It is not just a matter of bowling 10 overs. It is the pressure you take in the bowling, in the field. It`s too great."

In a summer ravaged by injuries to game`s top fast bowlers - Curtly Ambrose, Australia`s Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming and Younis, Walsh and Akram have endorsed Taylor`s call for regular meetings of captains of the nine Test-playing nations. And it may be that Taylor`s call has been heard in the right places as it us understood the International Cricket Council (ICC) may host such a meeting at Lord`s in mid-May.

I am 100 per cent for such a move, Walsh said. I think the cricketers should have a solid input in to it (running of the game) as well.

These days, international cricket calendars are bombarded with numbing number of one-dayer internationals in countries like Singapore, Canada and Kenya which bring in as much as US $700,000 for participating nations a television revenue per tournament.

Walsh was speaking in his capacity as the president of the restructured West Indies Players` Association (WIPA), which has been very successful in most negotiations with the West Indies Cricket Board through its official representative Brian Lara.

Three of the most influential players in world cricket - Taylor, Walsh and Akram - believe ICPA is imperative following the influence of Australia and West Indies` domestic associations on their respective controlling bodies.

The ICPA will have a greater say in blocking Jagmohan Dalmiya`s efforts to globalise the game through year-round cricket - mainly one-dayers.

India`s Dalmiya could be at the helm of the ICC this year after conceding defeat in 1996 in his bid to become the chairman.

Younis feel players are losing in the limited-overs game and are demanding immediate attention from the ICC.

In 1976 the world witnessed just six one-dayers. The figure rose to 62 in 1986 and in 1996 it exceeded 100 by the end of October.

Source :: Dawn (https://xiber.com/dawn)