Arthur Turner

The integrity of international cricket is being undermined by the continued participation of countries that do not have the capacity to play international cricket and the unlawful ban of the Indian Cricket League players. International cricket is being over exposed and suffers from a severe dose of mediocrity because of these factors.

The performances by Kenya and Bangladesh in South Africa once again proved that they do not belong in the main stream of international cricket. The ease with which South Africa beat these two teams has once again shown that they are not competitive or improving. The trend of the matches has been the same for both tours.

The first Test against Bangladesh was an extremely poor advert for Test cricket with Bangladesh only facing 88 overs in both their innings.

The ICC has sent a delegation to Zimbabwe to see how they can assist them in regaining their Test status. Only the ICC can be so naive as to believe that Zimbabwe can continue to play Test cricket. In a country where inflation is running at who knows what and economic meltdown is devastating, survival is the key, not Test cricket.

Zimbabwe have played three ODIs against Sri Lanka and have failed to offer any resistance, never mind being competitive. What chance have they of competing in the Test arena against the likes of Australia, India and South Africa?

The ICC needs to acknowledge that their policy of developing Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Kenya in the main stream of international cricket is not working. These countries do not have the capacity to play at this level and it is debatable if they ever will have. They are no more than a millstone around the neck of international cricket in an era of professionalism, commercialism and a congested international cricket schedule.

Promotion-relegation playoff system

International cricket needs to be re-structured with only the traditional eight nations playing Test cricket. The ICC does not need to grow Test cricket but merely sustain it because of its tradition and status. The future growth of the game lies in the shortened version and not Test cricket.

With regards ODIs, the ICC needs to develop a two-tier system with the current eight Test nations playing in the top division and the second division consisting of teams like Zimbabwe, Kenya, Bangladesh, Ireland, Scotland etc. They can develop a promotion-relegation playoff system to encourage the second division teams. This system would be more equitable and sustainable for international cricket.

The unlawful banning of the ICL players has also had a negative effect on the quality of international teams especially Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa. We saw first hand the effect this ban has had on South Africa’s ODI team in England and it will once again be visible against Australia in the ODI series in 2009. This ridiculous decision is also contributing to the mediocrity of international cricket.

It is refreshing to see that cricketing people like Clive Lloyd and the new director general of the Pakistan Cricket Board Javed Miandad are starting to question this unlawful and dictatorial decision. Also, Sri Lanka has allowed six of their ICL players to play domestic cricket again.

The time has arrived to resolve this impasse between the ICL and the Indian Premier League in the interests of cricket and the players. The dictatorship of Lalit Modi and the IPL needs to be ended, they do not own the game of cricket, and they never invented 20-over cricket.

Arthur is a former cricket administrator and current player agent.

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