COUNTY_NEWS_02MAR95

Players seek to instigate conduct code - Richard Bright

ENGLAND`S county cricketers are trying to install their own code of conduct in time for the forthcoming season. Lord`s officials are to be asked to rubber-stamp the initiative, which is a product of the new-look Cricketers` Association under David Graveney.

The former Gloucestershire and Durham captain, now general secretary of the players` union, presented a copy of the freshlydrafted code to Alan Smith, the Test and County Cricket Board`s chief executive, at Lord`s yesterday.

Graveney said English players felt strongly that domestic cricket should be more self-regulatory in areas of discipline.

"We feel we should strive to get cricket more in line with golf, where the players set the rules of conduct and etiquette and administer that code themselves. Standards in golf are high and we must try to emulate that. Captains are the key people in cricket and they must also have a sensible relationship with umpires."

Carter to leave Northamptonshire

Bob Carter, Northamptonshire`s chief coach since 1987, is to leave the club at the end of the coming season. The news comes as the county await the outcome of Warwickshire`s interest in recruiting their director of cricket, Phil Neale.

Carter, 34, was offered another long-term contract but turned it down in favour of a three-year deal as senior coach to Wellington, the New Zealand side he has been helping for the last three winters.

"It will be a wrench," Carter said. "I first came to the county in 1976, and Allan Lamb and I are the two longest-serving members of the playing staff. But times move on."

A row between Kerry Packer`s Channel Nine Network and Australis, the new pay-TV operator, is threatening to prevent British viewers from watching Australia`s tour of the West Indies. Australis, which began transmission in late January, claim to have the rights to the Caribbean series. But Packer`s free-to-air network, the major cricket broadcaster, will not budge on simultaneous coverage with its fledgling rival.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)