Tour details put in place between boards - ICC

The details of where and when teams play matches are the responsibility of the individual Boards the ICC said today.

Responding to comments made by West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) President, Wes Hall, regarding the scheduling of the First Test between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said that it came as a surprise to see the WICB suggest that the ICC had scheduled this game.

"The details of how, when and where matches take place are agreed between the teams taking part in any series," said Mr Speed.

"The only role the ICC has in scheduling is to make sure that all teams fulfil their commitment to play each other in a series of not less than two Test matches and three One Day Internationals both home and away in a five year cycle.

"In this year's West Indies schedule, the West Indies Cricket Board, for sound cricket and commercial reasons, decided to play four Tests and seven ODI's against Australia and this decision obviously impacted on their ability to schedule the Sri Lanka series.

"The previous Chief Executive of the WICB raised some concerns about the timing of this tour with the ICC last year and we indicated that there were alternative times available for the games to be played within the five-year schedule but no alteration to the schedule was made."

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