Technology has made throwing issue more complex

Martin Snedden believes politics have been removed from debate over suspect bowling actions but reaching decisions had been made harder as a result of high quality technology being brought into discussion. He was reviewing the recent meeting of the International Cricket Council's cricket committee-management held in India.

Snedden, the chief executive of New Zealand Cricket and a former international medium-fast bowler, said the issue was becoming bound up in technology. "Experts are analysing bowlers with a high degree of technology which shows that most fast bowlers have some form of extra extension in their delivery. Technology has made it harder rather than easier to resolve the issue."

The meeting had looked at various ways to get the system for helping suspect bowlers working efficiently but it was felt that where the system was at the moment was reasonable. The matter has been referred back to the ICC cricket committee-playing for more discussion at their next meeting.

Snedden did find there was some interest in a paper he presented on the move being made in New Zealand this year whereby umpires will not give a reason for declining appeals from the fielding side. This was being done because of the way players had abused a privilege that had been extended to teams in good faith by the umpires.

"There was interest in what we were doing and other members are keen to see how it works in practice and it may be possible that the ICC looks to bring this in across the world. I have to report back to the next committee meeting in Bangladesh in February on how it has worked out before it is taken any further," he told Wisden Cricinfo today.

Snedden said he felt there was a positive feel about the meeting and the relationships between countries had improved since the issues raised during the World Cup. "It's taken time to recover from that but it is much more positive now. It was helpful being in India for the meeting and that enabled the new president Ehsan Mani to spend quite a lot of time with the Indian administration and Jagmohan Dalmiya."

The decision over the World Cup format for the tournament to be held in the West Indies in 2007 was a sensible one, Snedden believed. One of the criticisms of this year's event was that it had gone too long with too many mismatches. While the new format would see the number of competing teams lifted to 16, it would produce a cleaner format. And, Snedden said, it had to be remembered that the West Indies was a confederation of 13 countries. By having four sections of four teams, teams would play their first three games in the same country before the successful countries moved into the Super Eights in two different countries and through the process to find the winner.

"Logistically it makes good sense and the tournament will move much quicker to a conclusion," he said. Similarly with the proposed Super Series whereby the No 1 ranked teams in the world in Test and one-day rankings, would play the best of the rest. This, if it went ahead, would be played in South Africa around September 2005 although much work had still to be done before it was confirmed.

New Zealand's Players' Association had been supportive of the idea, although there were some questions of the viability of the concept. Snedden said it was his understanding that the players at the top of the individual rankings in both styles of the game would be the preferred players for the two events. It was a means of rewarding the best players in the game.

As far as Players' Associations were concerned, Snedden said everyone agreed there needed to be an effective method of consultation with elite players. But it was important that home boards establish a good line of communication with their own players before the ICC then looked to have a strong line of communication with the representatives of the elite players and their home countries, so that there were three parties, and not just two, in the loop.

Cultural differences needed to be taken into account along with the realisation that some countries saw these issues differently to others. But he felt the issue was closer to a solution.

As for the issue of the volume of cricket being played, Snedden said there was a review of the whole structure being undertaken but that the 10-year programme was not at issue, it was the extra games that countries arranged for themselves that were the problem. And it wasn't the over-use of teams that was the issue, it was more the individual players and how they were managed, especially if they were part of both the specialist one-day and Test teams.