At a time when cricket is facing daunting challenges in the wake of new match-fixing allegations, Sharad Pawar, the president of the International Cricket Council (ICC), has decided to skip a crucial Chief Executive Committee's meeting in Cape Town, commencing on Monday.
Politician-turned-cricket administrator Pawar is also the Union Minister of Agriculture in India. After becoming President of the ICC, Pawar had requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reduce his workload as minister but apparently nothing was done about it.
Pawar has sent his apologies to the ICC over his inability to attend the meeting which will decide on future tour programmes and the context for international cricket and ICC competition structures.
In fact, Pawar, after becoming the president of the ICC, was asked by the media if he would be able to find time for the world cricket body's regular meetings and plans. Pawar said at the time that Dubai was only a two-and-a-half-hour flight from India and that he could visit on weekends and fly back.
Working group proposal
The ICC meeting in Cape Town is to consider a proposal from its working group on evolving a context for international cricket. It is also to confirm the future tour programme between 2012 and 2020. The proposal will include the possibility of Test and ODI leagues as well as that of a Test play-off.
The executives' meeting will also receive updates on the promotion of international cricket and progress on the development of the ICC Strategic Plan from 2011-2015.
There are also expected to be further updates on the successful implementation of the Decision Review System (DRS).
The CEC working group, comprising David Collier (England and Wales), Nishantha Rantaguna (Sri Lanka), N. Srinivasan (India), James Sutherland (Australia) and David Richardson (ICC General Manager — Cricket), says it has thoroughly researched items on the agenda, and will present a host of issues for approval.
This group has also taken into account market research data collected in South Africa, England, India, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh which indicates a need for context and content to be introduced into international cricket. The group also said it studied present funding arrangements for the Futures Tours Programme as well as the commercial contractual obligations.
