ICC planning new penalties for errant players

Nobody should hold their breath, least of all errant cricketers, but there seems a determined move afoot to make players conform to improved standards of behaviour. The International Cricket Council announced yesterday that it is planning several new categories of punishment which the new élite panel of referees will have powers to impose.

These will be in four categories, which will range from a fine of 50 per cent of a miscreant player's match fee in the lowest, to a life ban in the highest. Presumably, the minor offence will be something like wearing a disallowed logo or shaking your head once when an lbw decision is given against you, and the major crime will be hitting one of the umpires over the head with a bat while having the other in an armlock.

To try to ensure the latter unfortunate action does not take place, the ICC is enlisting the services of the former England captain, Mike Brearley, who is now a psychologist. He will advise the new panels of umpires and referees at a four-day camp when all appointments have been ratified. No plans were announced for Brearley to give his professional services to poorly behaved players.

The chief executives of the 10 Test nations met here in Christchurch at the weekend to discuss new ways of administering the game. As the ICC chief executive, Malcolm Speed, said, they have to plan with regard to legal procedures.

To persuade the players to improve their behaviour, the ICC is aware that they must raise the standards of umpires and referees. They are close to appointing their élite panel of eight international umpires. Questionnaires have been sent to the 10 Test captains asking for ratings.

The country will not matter, though the proof of that statement will emerge only when the names are announced. England, incidentally, should not expect an inordinate representation. "The best will be the best irrespective of where they come from," Speed said.

Some 70 names of former Test players have been put forward as potential referees. Ranjan Madugalle, the Sri Lankan who has already been appointed as the chief referee, is flying round the world testing their credentials.

The peculiar case of Sunil Gavaskar was not raised formally at the meeting but it has been discussed. It centres on the dual roles of those who hold office, usually voluntarily, with the ICC and work in the media.

Gavaskar, the great former India opening batsman, is now a writer and broadcaster who is also chairman of the ICC's Cricket Committee (Playing). Last week he disparaged England as the world's greatest whingers in a newspaper column. This was not only inflammatory and wide of the mark but at odds with his ICC work as the England coach, Duncan Fletcher, later pointed out.

"In the course of the next day or so Sunny and I will be having a discussion about that. We have an issue where he is a volunteer chairman of one of our key committees and it's important that there's a balance between that and his role as a journalist.

"It's the first time this issue has come up. It's difficult to call upon people as we do for this committee and say you're volunteering for this, we want to have a significant impact on the way you earn your living." Maybe, however, the the time has arrived. The ICC is supposed to be running the international game, not enlisting the tea ladies for Upper Clogthorpe.