ICC chiefs slam players' body

Malcolm Speed: hit out at what he called FICA's 'unnecessarily belligerent approach to its dealings with ICC' © Getty Images

Less than 12 hours after Tim May, the chief executive of the Federation of international Cricketers' Associations, criticised the ICC for its handling of the Future Tours Program, Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has hit back, accusing May of an "unnecessarily belligerent approach".

May accused the ICC of not taking the players' needs into account when pushing through its FTP. He said: "It is clear that very important decisions are being made by ICC committees which have no international cricket playing experience and appear to have no appreciation of the demands and pressures of the game today from a player's perspective."

Those comments clearly hit a nerve. Ehsan Mani, the ICC's president, questioned whether the ICC "should be dealing with a body that has the authority to represent players from only half of the Full Member countries in its dealings with the ICC." He added that the ICC management would review the policy on dealing with FICA ahead of its next meeting on April 30 "as it is of the preliminary view that the current arrangement does not work."

Speed, meanwhile, wrote directly to May and made it clear that he believed that FICA should be cut out of the loop, saying the ICC was "of the preliminary view that a spirit of co-operation between players and administrators would be better served by each individual board dealing with its own players/player representatives.

"The board is concerned that FICA is currently representative of only five player associations which are recognised by their respective boards," he continued. "Concerns have also been raised that FICA is attempting to become involved with issues which are the domain of individual boards and their players/player associations.

"In addition, members of the ICC board were critical of FICA's apparent lack of respect or consideration for any views which conflict with its (FICA's) own views and its unnecessarily belligerent approach to its dealings with ICC."