News

TV sting alleges corruption among umpires

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A sting operation by an Indian TV channel claims to have "exposed" several first-class umpires from three countries who were allegedly willing to give decisions favouring players for a fee. The sting was broadcast on Monday evening by India TV, which in May had alleged corrupt practices by five Indian domestic players, all of whom were subsequently banned by the BCCI for varying lengths.

Among the umpires named or allegedly interviewed in the sting, one is a current member of the ICC's international panel of umpires and two have officiated in international matches. Two were fourth officials in unofficial warm-up matches before the 2012 World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka. Two of the umpires are from Bangladesh.

In the sting, conducted in July and August, the reporters claimed to belong to a sports management company and promised the umpires officiating assignments in events of all kinds around the world, largely domestic Twenty20 leagues.

The reporters, who worked undercover, carried out the 'sting' mainly through interviews and conversations via Skype, an internet videophone service. The one face-to-face meeting, with the International Panel umpire, is said to have taken place in Delhi in July. At that meeting, the umpire was asked whether he would do favours for cricketers who were sponsored by the "company" the reporters represented. He replied saying it would be possible to do so with reference to lbws and run-outs only. The no-ball, he said, "has the problem of going to the third umpire, so says the law. It has to be done in a way that nobody knows."

One of the umpires involved in the sting was alleged to have provided pre-match information relating to a domestic Twenty20 match - the state of the pitch, the playing XIs and the result of the toss - and had allegedly been paid Rs 15,000 (US$285) for it. On the Skype video, he can be heard promising the same information for a World Twenty20 practice game, which included a pitch report 90 minutes before the start of the match, as well the result of the toss.

In a statement, the ICC confirmed that none of the umpires named had been involved in any of the official games of the World Twenty20. It also asked the channel "to turn over any information that can assist the ICC's urgent investigations into this matter."

None of the umpires in the sting had been a part of the ICC's Elite panel of umpires, who are directly under the control of the ICC. Umpires on the international panel are under the jurisdiction and control of their home boards. Every national board can recommend their candidates for the international panel, but elevation to the international panel is not part of inevitable progress towards the elite panel. Not all international panel umpires are elevated to elite status.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board also issued a statement referring to "allegations of corruption... directed towards a Bangladeshi international panel umpire who is with the BCB on retainership basis." It pledged a "detailed inquiry" into the matter.

ESPNcricinfo was contacted in August this year by two of these umpires, who said they had the impression of being offered generous umpiring deals for an "upcoming" private tournament. The umpires said they were in discussions with the "sports management company" keeping the appointments in mind, with one of them saying he suspected the bonafides of the company. Both umpires claimed they had spoken to these "sports agents" on Skype; they said they had turned on their camera but the party on the other side, claiming to be from India, didn't turn on their webcams.

ICC news

DRS research not shown to ICC board

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	The ICC board did not take DRS to a vote but were not shown all the research © AFP  Enlarge

Independent research that may have swayed the ICC's executive board into approving mandatory use of the DRS was not shown at its meeting in Kuala Lumpur, despite being pivotal in convincing both the cricket committee and the chief executives' committee of the technology's accuracy.

Wally Edwards, the Cricket Australia chairman, has revealed that the research on ball-tracking conducted by Dr Ed Rosten, an expert in computer vision technology, was left off the agenda of the executive board meeting, which concluded without the issue of DRS even being put to a vote due to India's reluctance to accept its use.

The ICC will now send a mission to India to show Dr Rosten's research to the BCCI, alongside details of the enhancements made to Hot Spot, the infrared cameras used to detect edges that had their accuracy questioned after the 2011 Test series between England and India.

Edwards told ESPNcricinfo that while other members of the board had also expressed some reluctance to go ahead with mandatory use of the DRS, he believed the tabling of Dr Rosten's research may have resulted in a different outcome.

"ICC had got some independent research done on the accuracy and all those issues. Now unfortunately they didn't present that information to the board," Edwards said. "India have agreed and the boards have agreed for ICC management to go to India and take all the information, take their presentations, take their technical support and talk to them over there.

"India are willing to look at it, but they're sceptical, and others are too - it's not just India. I think it is part of the game for the future, but it's a good time to review. Unfortunately if that presentation, or whatever it is they had, had been presented to the board it might have changed things. But we probably need another process, because people would have to go back to their boards and say 'this is the latest, can we move from where we are to there'. Obviously Australia supports it, and we understand there's still an error factor, but overall it's better than what we had."

The accuracy of the DRS had been warmly endorsed by both the ICC's cricket committee and chief executives committee, with Dr Rosten's research a critical part of winning their approval. Following the CEC meeting, an ICC statement read: "CEC recommended to the Board the universal application of the DRS after being satisfied with the technology enhancements provided by new Hotspot cameras and the results of the independent research on ball tracking conducted by Dr Ed Rosten, an expert in computer vision technology. Dr Rosten had tested the accuracy and reliability of ball tracking in a recent Test series and concluded that the results were 100% in agreement with the outcomes produced from his assessments."

Much has been made of the back-room politics of the executive board, which appears to be far more consequential to the running of the global game than anything said in formal meetings. Edwards, however, said he did not find it unusual that the DRS was not tabled for a vote, based on his previous experience on various corporate and cricket boards in Australia. Instead, he awaited India's response to the research they will be presented with.

"Obviously if there are debatable issues we try to debate them. The more difficult the issue, the more you should talk," Edwards said. "But in any boards that I've been on, there are very few decisions that will actually go to a 'we're going to count the votes here' situation. Governance is one of them, but most others you'll find a consensus that says 'yeah right we'll give that a run'. I didn't find it unusual.

"We knew where India stand on it, and at this point in time they're not ready to change their thoughts. Those lines you see on TV, are they accurate, that's the scepticism. It looks accurate, but from their point of view they are reluctant just to accept it as gospel. I think it is possible they'll change, but we'll have to wait and see how they go with this new information in India."

Previous attempts have been made to demonstrate the intricacies and accuracy of ball-tracking and other technology to the BCCI, notably via a planned trip to Australia during the 2010-11 Ashes series. On that occasion the visit was at first approved by the BCCI but then ruled out due to "scheduling difficulties".

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ICC board picks Dave Richardson as next chief executive

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	Dave Richardson: "I am delighted with this opportunity and thank the ICC board for their approval." © AFP

Dave Richardson, the former South Africa wicketkeeper and ICC general manager (cricket), has been picked by the ICC board to succeed Haroon Lorgat as chief executive. The board will recommend Richardson's name at the ICC annual conference in June, when Lorgat's term ends. Richardson will be the first former Test cricketer to occupy this position.

The ICC nominations committee had met in Mumbai on Sunday to interview four candidates - the others included ECB chief executive David Collier - for the role and on Thursday obtained the ICC board's support for Richardson.

Richardson called the nomination a "great honour." "I am delighted with this opportunity and thank the ICC board for their approval. It has been a privilege to serve as ICC general manager, and that work will continue until such time as the ICC annual conference ratifies my nomination."

Alan Isaac, the ICC vice-president, said Richardson would "provide continuity and a smooth transition" from Lorgat.

"David Richardson was an outstanding candidate who not only had important knowledge of the ICC administration, its staff and its operations but also has unquestioned cricketing knowledge having represented his country so admirably," Isaac said. "I would like to put on record my appreciation for Haroon and what he and the ICC staff have achieved in the last four years. There have been many challenges, which have been met head on.

Richardson, a qualified lawyer, has served as ICC general manager - cricket for ten years and also played 42 Test matches and 122 ODIs for South Africa. After retiring from international cricket in 1998, Richardson was a business director with Octagon SA and a media commentator before becoming the ICC's first general manager in January 2002.

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ICC ponders lbw change for switch hits

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	Kevin Pietersen's use of the switch hit shot has provoked a discussion of the lbw law © Associated Press  Enlarge

The ICC is to review the playing condition regarding lbw decisions in international cricket in response to the emergence of the switch hit.

Cricket + understands that the ICC cricket committee, a group that includes Ian Bishop, Kumar Sangakkara and Mark Taylor, is to consider amending the playing condition whereby a batsman attempting to play the shot cannot be given out lbw if the ball has pitched outside the leg stump.

The news, first mentioned in passing in The Guardian, will mean that any right-handed batsman who switches his stance or grip to effectively play as a left-hander, will be able to be given out even if the ball had pitched outside the leg stump and vice-versa. Bowlers will also be allowed more leeway as regards leg side wides in limited-overs cricket. The cricket committee meets in Dubai later this month.

While any recommendations cannot come into force until they are ratified by the ICC board and the ICC's chief executives' committee, it is unlikely that the cricket committee's proposals would be ignored. The decision will not affect the laws of the game, which are governed by the MCC, leading to the possibility that playing conditions in first-class cricket around the world will differ from playing conditions in the international game. It is up to each national board to determine whether to adopt the ICC's playing conditions in their domestic cricket. While some boards - including those in Sri Lanka and South Africa - tend to default to the ICC stance, others - such as the ECB - are more independent minded. At present the major differences between ICC playing regulations and MCC laws concern the rules regarding the degree of flexion bowlers are allowed, the use of runners and decisions relating to the DRS.

The MCC is also considering the repercussions of the more regular use of the switch hit stroke. Two members of the MCC's laws subcommittee - Dave Richardson and John Stephenson - also sit on the ICC Cricket Committee.

The switch hit first came to prominence in 2008 when Kevin Pietersen played it in an ODI against New Zealand in Durham. The same batsman was involved when matters came to a head in a Test in Sri Lanka recently when Tillakaratne Dilshan pulled out of his delivery stride on several occasions as Pietersen shaped to play the shot and the stand-off threatened to reach stalemate. The umpires, Asad Rauf and Bruce Oxenford, warned Pietersen for time-wasting, but the ICC is now looking for a more permanent solution.

The ICC will be keen not to encourage negative bowling, however. The shot is sometimes played, even at Test level, to counter a leg stump line from right-hand bowlers coming round the wicket and many feel that the switch hit, a shot requiring high skill levels and remarkable reflexes, has been an entertaining addition to the game. It may also be that the ICC asks for some analysis as regards the risk-reward ratio of the shot and whether its usage really does disadvantage bowlers.

Any amendment to the playing conditions is likely to prove torturously difficult to phrase. For a start, it could prove tough to define exactly what constitutes a switch hit - whether it involves a change of stance, a change of grip and when they take place. It is worth noting that the ICC, reacting to David Warner's decision to remain in his normal left-handed stance but with a right-handed grip, issued a directive to umpires in February 2010 that stated such a tactic should be tolerated as long as it did not change once the bowler had begun their run up. As things stand the laws do not define what it means to bat left- or right-handed.

Fraser Stewart, MCC's Laws Manager, recently raised an interesting quandary. "What would happen," Stewart asked, "if a batsman stood chest on to the bowler? If may sound a ludicrous suggestion now, but we have a generation of young cricketers growing up playing the switch hit and prepared to experiment with their stance and their grip. It may well happen."

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ICC's nomination committee set to pick next CEO

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	The ICC's committee will meet in Mumbai to conduct interviews to determine Haroon Lorgat's successor © Getty Images  Enlarge

The ICC's nomination committee, headed by its president Sharad Pawar, will meet in Mumbai on May 6 to conduct interviews with the four short-listed candidates to determine the successor to Haroon Lorgat, the outgoing chief executive officer. Though the identity of the four has been kept a closely guarded secret, it is understood that David Collier, the current ECB CEO along with Dave Richardson, who is ICC's general manager of cricket, were two names on the shortlist, picked by the global executive head-hunting company Egon Zehnder.

Pawar would be joined at the table by Alan Issac (the ICC vice-president), Julian Hunte (the West Indies Cricket Board president), Keith Oliver (Cricket Scotland chairman). Also present will be the pair of N Srinivasan and Giles Clarke (the BCCI and ECB heads), who were co-opted on to the nomination panel at the last minute.

Though the names of the two other candidates could not be ascertained, Collier has been tipped as a likely favourite at the outset only because of his extensive experience in various administrative and management roles at the ECB, where he has been the CEO for the last eight years. "He has been around for a long time and hence knows the game. He knows what is topical in the game and has been England chief executive for a long time, too," an ICC member board source told ESPNcricinfo.

But the source also pointed out that one possible blot against Collier could be his open embrace of Allen Stanford, the American businessman who is in jail in the USA after being convicted for fraud. In 2008 Stanford had joined hands with the ECB to promote Twenty20 cricket and Collier, along with Clarke, were in involved in drawing up the plans.

"Collier comes with the Stanford mark with him [though]. How can they even think of a guy who went into that deal? Some people in the ICC board don't trust him," the source said.

As for Richardson, the source said, despite the former South African wicketkeeper's clean image, the one big factor that was likely to stand against him was his inexperience and lack of skills in commerce and finance. "He knows the ICC environment fully well, but he is not skilled in the commercial and financial nous and those are important skillsets for any chief executive needs to run an organisation," the source said. "You need a man with knowledge in diverse fields."

The source felt that Pawar, who wielded control at one time at the ICC, would not be as influential in the selection process. Eventually, he felt, it would be the pair of Srinivasan and Clarke, who would control things at the selection table. "They will not keep quiet. These two believe in running the board as if they are the only executive. So they are likely to influence things," the source said.

Another factor that could figure in the selection process, the source said, was the recent decision by the ICC board to adopt one of the recommendations of the Woolf Report to split the role of the president into two - that entails creating a post of chairman and reducing the president to an "ambassadorial" role. "The danger is this split could cause the undermining of the role of the CEO," the source said. The chairman, the source noted, would then play the leadership role while the chief executive ran the corporate body. He feared boards like the BCCI and ECB could then overpower the future CEO.

According to an official from a different member country, he did not foresee any problem with if an independent was picked as Lorgat's replacement. "If the person is a capable, experienced candidate, he can fit into the role provided he understands the role," he said.

The candidate who will be eventually picked would be recommended to the ICC executive board at the annual conference, to be held at end of June in Kuala Lumpur, before making his name public.

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No Champions Trophy after 2013

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	Australia won the previous Champions Trophy, in 2009 © Getty Images  Enlarge

The 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, to be held in England, will be the last time the tournament is played as the ICC moves towards having one championship for each of the game's three formats from 2015. The tournament is part of the Future Tours Program in 2013 but does not appear after that, with the play-offs for the World Test Championship scheduled for June 2017.

"If you don't see it in the schedule, it means it is not planned for the future," Haroon Lorgat, the ICC's chief executive, said at a press conference following the executive board meeting on Monday. "We have said for a while that we would like one championship event for each format. We are including the Test championship in there. We have the World Cup to have the champion for 50-overs cricket. So we are not planning to hold Champions Trophy in the future."

The World Test Championship was initially scheduled for 2013, but had to be postponed due to the ICC's commitments to its broadcaster and sponsors. The ICC's broadcast partner is ESPN STAR Sports*, with whom they have a contract till 2015. The ICC had initially hoped to convince all interested parties to switch the Champions Trophy, the ICC's second-biggest 50-over tournament, to play-offs between the top four Test teams as per the ICC Test rankings.

However, after the ICC's executive board meeting in October, 2011, it released a statement saying there would be significant commercial challenges in replacing the Champions Trophy without the support and consent of the ICC's broadcast partner. Changing the tournament's format from ODIs to Test play-offs would have required a substantial cut in the broadcast rights fee, which would have repercussions on the Members.

Inaugurated as the ICC Knock Out tournament in 1998, the Champions Trophy was played every two years until 2009, switching to a round-robin format in 2002. Originally, all ten Full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) took part, together with (for the first four competitions) two Associate members. The 2013 event in England will feature the eight highest-ranked ODI teams calculated six months before the tournament.

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ICC presidency term to be cut to a year

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T20 and scheduling of ICC events In a decision that will please the Associate nations, the ICC has confirmed the increase in the number of teams participating in the World T20 from 12 to 16. Teams can now play three additional Twenty20 Internationals in the year of an ICC World Twenty20, along with a corresponding reduction in the maximum number of permitted ODIs. The maximum T20 Internationals in a year otherwise is set at 12. The ICC also released a tentative schedule for its new events cycle from 2015 and 2023. However, the number of teams taking part in the World Cup has been restricted to 10, until 2023. The World Twenty20 2014 qualifying tournament will be held in the United Arab Emirates in October 2013 and the World Cup 2015 qualifying event in New Zealand in 2014. The Board also released the first outline for its plans for the World Test Championship, with three games between four teams scheduled for 2017 and 2021.

The ICC's Executive Board confirmed a constitutional amendment that will alter the role of its president and create a new post of a non-voting Board Chairman. If the amendment is approved by the ICC's general body in June, the presidency of cricket's governing body will become a rotational one-year term, starting 2014, at which time the post of vice-president will cease to exist. The chairman, who will now head the Executive Board, will serve three-year terms, with a maximum of two terms.

The nomination of Bangladesh Cricket Board president Mustafa Kamal as the joint candidate from Bangladesh and Pakistan for the vice-president's post, to succeed Sir Alan Isaac in 2014, has been deferred until the ICC's annual conference, to be held in Kuala Lumpur at the end of June.

This will be the fourth time the ICC has made a change in its presidential format since reworking its constitution in 1996. The move to do away with a rotational presidency follows the controversial rejection in June 2010 of the nomination of John Howard as the ICC's vice-presidential candidate to succeed president Sharad Pawar. The constitutional amendment may have retained a rotational presidency, but the actual post has been altered in two different ways. From 2014 onward, the president's term has been cut down from two to one year and the position completely detached from administrative decision-making with the creation of the post of a chairman of the Board.

When the post of president was first created at the ICC, each full member appointed one man for the post on a rotational basis: Jagmohan Dalmiya from India, Malcolm Gray from Australia, Ehsan Mani from Pakistan and Percy Sonn from South Africa were the men appointed under this system. In 2007, the system was tweaked and the post of vice-president was also created. Though rotation stayed as a policy, nominations now came from pairs of countries: Australia-New Zealand, West Indies-England, India-Sri Lanka, Pakistan-Bangladesh and South Africa-Zimbabwe.

Kamal's vice-presidential nomination has now been further delayed. The re-defined president's role and the constitutional amendments would first needed to be confirmed before the Board can turn their attention to what is to be done with the vice-president's post over the next two years. Within the next two months, Kamal's ambitions of becoming the ICC vice-president and from there, the president, will rest primarily on the support from the PCB. On Sunday, Bangladesh formally confirmed to the PCB that they will play one ODI and one Twenty20 International there later this month, in what will be the first international series in Pakistan since the attack on the Sri Lanka team in March 2009.

While the ICC Board announced that the post of the new Chairman would be instituted from 2014 onwards, it was not yet established whether the chairman would be appointed or elected. It is also not clear what the new 'ceremonial' post of president would actually involved as well as whether he would have the power to play any part in executive board functioning at all. At the moment the president chairs Board meetings, but has no vote. From 2014, the chairman would now become the head of the Board.

The Board also stated that recommendations made by the Woolf independent governance review needed "further discussion" to build a greater consensus. The directors of the Board - the chiefs of all the Full Member boards and three associate representatives - would "begin discussion among themselves" in order to develop, "a clearer understanding of the role of the ICC." The directors, it was said, would hold "more informal dicussions" among themselves and member boards in order to prepare their ground for the Kuala Lumpur meeting.

Apart from splitting the role of president and chairman of the board - both non-voting positions - the only other recommendation of the Woolf independent governance review that the Board had categorically agreed to was about "creating targeted funding" for members. The ICC has given no further details of the 'targeted funding' that was being considered. Haroon Lorgat, the CEO of the ICC, said it would have been, "unrealistic" to expect immediate decisions to be taken in regard to the Woolf report but said "it is encouraging there is a willingness to engage in difficult and significant governance matters." The Woolf review had called for sweeping changes in the global administration of cricket and the administration of the ICC.

Lorgat is now in his last two months as the CEO and will leave the position at the end of the annual conference in June. The board said it had identified four candidates who will be interviewed for the post. The ICC Executive Board consists of the president or chairman from each of the 10 Full Members plus three Associate Member representatives. The meeting is chaired by the ICC President and and also attended by the ICC Chief Executive, the ICC Vice-President, and by invitation, the ICC Principal Advisor.

ICC exectuive board meeting, April 2012

Will ICC take first steps towards best governance?

The ICC's executive board meets in Dubai over Sunday and Monday to discuss, among other issues, the Woolf review, the vice-presidential nomination and the next round of ICC events between 2015 and 2023

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	At its last executive board meeting in March, the ICC executive board suggested re-defining the role of the president, making it a largely "ceremonial" role and creating a new post of chairman © Getty Images  Enlarge
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When the ICC's executive board meets in Dubai over Sunday and Monday, the main item on their agenda will be the 65 recommendations made public in February following the independent governance review, headed by Lord Woolf.

The Woolf review called for sweeping changes in the global administration of cricket and the administration of the ICC, which begins with the executive board itself. It would be unrealistic to expect the board, made up of the heads of the ten Full Members plus three Associate representatives, to give a green light to its own fairly substantial demolition as suggested by Woolf.

Were the ICC's decisions not largely dependent on power equations and political bargaining, the list of items on the board's April agenda would even appear ho-hum. For now, each item contains both minefield and bargaining chip.

Woolf report recommendations apart, the agenda includes the vice-presidential nomination, suggestions regarding how the Twenty20 format should be handled, and the next round of ICC events between 2015 and 2023, including the World Test Championship.

Perhaps Woolf's most contentious recommendation, pertaining to the restructuring of the board, suggests the creation of new posts of independent directors in order to ensure that the board is less dominated by the "bigger" nations. A handful of the Full Members have already commented publicly on the report and made their stands clear. Cricket Australia and the PCB were measured in their comments, saying that it would be wrong to reject the report out of hand and that the ICC executive board should seek a consensus among cricket boards before deciding whether to implement it or not. The BCCI's working committee had rejectedthe key recommendations concerning the restructuring. The BCCI response to the report noted that their working committee was, "in particular not agreeable to the changes in the structure of the management of the ICC that had been proposed."

In all debates surrounding the ICC and its functioning, the BCCI's bargaining chip, often with smaller Full Member nations, usually rests with the individual country's engagements with the Indian cricket team. The more India tours there, the higher the earnings for the members boards from television rights. The more the tours, the more the revenue; a cold shoulder from India can translate into red on that national cricket board's balance sheet.

At this time, it is the Bangladesh Cricket Board that could do with some friends at the ICC executive board level. Together with Pakistan, it has nominated its CEO, Mustafa Kamal, for the role of vice-president - this means, if sanctioned, he will succeed Alan Isaac as president in 2014. It is believed that Pakistan's support for Kamal's nomination, however, was dependent on Bangladesh agreeing to tour Pakistan and breaking a three-year freeze on international cricket in the country. The ICC had refused to send its officials on that tour, which led to a growing reluctance by the BCB to commit to the tour.

Kamal's role as vice-president could also be affected by a Woolf recommendation stating that under its proposed new board structure, the ICC "consider the position and role, if any, of the ICC vice-president between 2012 and 2014." At the same time the BCB will also be looking for a new television rights partner, its contract with Indian broadcaster Nimbus TV having come to an end.

The ICC executive board members Each Full Member of the ICC has a representative on the executive board, while the Associates and Affiliates are represented by three persons. The board that will meet on Sunday and Monday includes: Zaka Ashraf, Pakistan Willie Basson, South Africa Peter Chingoka, Zimbabwe Giles Clarke, England and Wales Wally Edwards, Australia Julian Hunte, West Indies Mustafa Kamal, Bangladesh N Srinivasan, India Chris Moller, New Zealand Nuski Mohamed, Sri Lanka (alternate for Upali Dharmadasa) Imran Khwaja, Associate representative Keith Oliver, Associate representative Neil Speight, Associate representative The ICC president (Sharad Pawar),chief executive (Haroon Lorgat), vice-president (Alan Isaac) and principal advisor will also be present, but will not vote.

In this scenario, there could be a surprise ally for the BCB. Only recently it announced it had received reassurances from the BCCI that Bangladesh could be invited for their first full Test series in India since being granted Test status in 2000. This alliance between the BCCI and the BCB may only be fully explained after the board's decisions are announced on Monday.

The sole common ground shared by the ICC and the Woolf review is to be found in the ICC president's office. At its last executive board meeting in March, a month after the release of the Woolf Report, the board suggested re-defining the role of the president, scrapping its rotational appointment, making it a largely "ceremonial" position and creating a new one of chairman. This also happened to constitute two of the 65 recommendations of the Woolf report. Neither side though, clearly outlined the procedure for the election of the new, powerful chairman. In its only public comment on the Woolf report, the ECB had said it "welcomed" the creation of a new post of chairman and the reduction of the role of the president to a ceremonial one.

The major support for the Woolf report comes from the game's minor powers, the Associate nations. The review had recommended the re-examination of the rights and benefits of the Test-playing Full Member nations, a flexibility in the granting of Full Member status and increased transparency in the ICC and its members' dealings.

The Woolf review had advised against "cherry-picking" from among its suggestions, but this could in fact be the only way for the ICC's board to not only be progressive, but to also appear so.

On the sidelines of the board meeting, key officials of the PCB arrived early in Dubai to meet with the ICC legal team. The PCB is aiming to sort out issues pertaining to a proposed amendment to the ICC's constitution that would give it power to suspend a member if there is government interference in the running of the national cricket board. While Sri Lanka Cricket held its first election in seven years, the PCB is linked to the government with the country's president being its patron. As per its constitution, the PCB's chairman is appointed by the country's president without the conduct of any elections. Last June, the PCB had sent a legal notice to and threatened legal action against the ICC. That issue is yet to be resolved.

In the run-up to the meeting of the board, the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA) said in a statement that the meeting would "test whether the directors of the board make decisions based on the greater interests of the game, or whether the directors vote on the basis of what is best for their country".

FICA's president, Tim May, said those who had rejected the major recommendations of the Woolf Report regarding restructuring of the board itself 'did not want to give up the right of voting for what is best for their country" and needed "a refresher course as to what purpose they are supposed to perform on the board". He said: "Their responsibility is clear - it is to make decisions based on the greater interests of the game, not the self-interests of the board members."

This meeting will be the first formal opportunity for the board, after the benefit of a month's deliberation, to give a definitive indication of its future course of action. Over the next two days, the ICC's most powerful body will give world cricket a clue as to whether it is willing to take the first step on the road map of best governance or whether that road map will actually end up as just a well-intentioned piece of paperwork.