ICC convenes international captains to discuss Test overkill

“We have been losing ground to sports like soccer and tennis and our new thurst would be to spread the pull of the game to more countries and bring the crowds back to the majestic Test cricket,” Dalmiya said soon after taking over .

“My thrust would be towards spreading interest in the game to newer nations, undertaking review of the volume of cricket played, fair distribution of Test and other matches and above all taking steps to revive spectator interest,” he said.

Announcing a complete revamping of the ICC structure by setting up a new cricket committee, an upgraded development committee and a new finance and marketing committee, Dalmiya also announced that a meeting of national captains would be held at the Lord’s on July 11 to study their complaint about too much cricket.

Dalmiya, the first Asian to head ICC, said the newly reconstituted ICC board was looking at a proposal for holding a Test match World Championship and had constituted a sub-committee to fix the parameters.

Dalmiya said the new cricket committee to be headed by Sir Clyde Walcott, would have two parts, one made up of former players including India’s Sunil Gavaskar to deal with the playing aspect. The other would be made up by chief executives, who would lend their expertise on management issues.

ODI STATUS FOR KENYA: The newly-constituted committee has accorded Bangladesh and Kenya “first class and One-Day International” status. Dalmiya said that progress of Bangladesh — to play against strong countries as part of an intensive programme — will be closely monitored and a further review on their demand for Test status made at the 1998 ICC annual conference.

The freshly constituted ICC also approved the new National Grid panel of umpires and referees and brought in three umpires into the panel — Rudi Koertzon (South Africa), Javed Akhtar (Pakistan) and VK Ramaswamy (India).

“My election as ICC president reflects a mood for bringing in more democratic spirit into it, with the thrust that all members are equal irrespective of the fact where the game was invented,” Dalmiya said.While agreeing that based at the Lord’s, the game had adopted too much of a “snobbish and conservative approach” he said “cricketing traditions had to be maintained. But we have to bring them in tune with changing times.”

Dalmiya stoutly refuted any move to shift the ICC headquarters. “It should not be shifted as the post of president will keep rotating. But there is a need for a separate office for the president.”

A president’s secretariat would soon start operating from Calcutta, which would also host the first ever ICC conference to be held away from the Lord’s on December 9-10 this year.

Soon after his election, Dalmiya said a worldwide programme for commercial partners would be developed and it was hoped that the first major sponsorship in the area could be announced before the end of 1997.

YOUTH WORLD CUP IN SA: The ICC annual meeting had decided to hold the First Youth World Cup in South Africa in January next. Cricket would be a medal sport for the first time in the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games “member countries have committed to send their best available teams,” he said.

Briefing on the crucial annual ICC meeting, the chief executive, David Richards said, “we also agreed to enter into negotiations with Disney to establish an international standard cricket facility at the Disney World in Orlando, US.

“Full members will commit their teams once each over the next three years so that ICC in conjunction with the governing body of cricket in the United States can stage triangular One-Day International series for a three year period to introduce cricket into that country,” he said.

The ICC membership had been widened further by the acceptance of Belize, Cayman Islands and Sweden as affiliate members, bringing the total number of countries in this class of membership to 16, Richards said.