Quote:Shashank Manohar, the ICC chairman, has fulfilled his promise of the governing body adopting a new constitution. The ICC revealed on Thursday that it had "unanimously" adopted an "extensively revised" constitution at the annual conference in London. A radical new governance structure is set to change the way cricket is run and administered.

During the April round of meetings, the ICC Board had already voted 8-2 (Full Members) in favour of carrying out various changes to the governance structure. These included: having just two levels of memberships - Full and Associate - having an independent female director on the ICC Board, increasing the votes on the ICC Board to 17 (12 Full Members + three Associates + independent female director and chairman), creating a new position of deputy chairman - who would chair board meetings in the absence of a chairman - and creating a membership committee that will monitor the status of all members.

The BCCI and Sri Lanka Cricket were the only two boards that opposed the governance structure in April. However, negotiations between the boards and the ICC in in the intervening months seems to have resolved the knotty issues.

"The decision [to grant Full Member status to Afghanistan and Ireland] followed the unanimous adoption of an extensively revised constitution for the ICC which, in addition to transforming the membership process through the adoption of new membership criteria, introduced a female Independent Director and a Deputy Chairman and equalised Board voting," the ICC said in a media release at the conclusion of its annual general meeting in London this week.

"Other changes to the constitution include the appointment of a Deputy Chairman, who shall assume the duties of Chairman, Shashank Manohar, when he is unable to fulfil his duties. In addition, a female Independent Director with full voting rights will be recruited to the ICC Board.

"The voting composition of the ICC Board will also change so that every Board Member - including Full Member and Associate Member Directors, as well as the Independent Chairman and Independent Director - will each have equal votes, with a two-thirds majority necessary for a resolution to be approved. In future, the Chairman of the Associate Members (who comprises one of the three Associate Member Directors) will also be required to be independent of any Member Board."

Manohar felt the new constitution was significant because the members had accepted to "improve governance" to benefit them all. "Throughout this process we have shown the strength of a collective and unified approach, and I would like to pay tribute to my Board colleagues who have been so determined to reach consensus," he said. "They have not focused solely on their own country but have ensured cricket around the world benefits."

Quote:While the entire Caribbean is going gaga over Alzarri Joseph, who appears a rare positive emerging from the region, fellow Antiguan and former West Indies fast bowling great Andy Roberts refuses to even consider him an out and out fast bowler.

“He is not fast. No, he is not fast. He bowls medium pace at 85 and 86 miles. What some of these guys need to do is speak to people, especially those from the past, and learn about their methods of training which made them bowl quick,” says Roberts.

Joseph, 20, was a member of the squad which beat India in the final of the 2016 U-19 World Cup and graduated to the senior side soon after.

Killing aggression

Roberts, the Antigua’s leader of the lethal West Indies bowling quartet in the 1970s and 80s, says cricket is becoming a ‘sissy’s game’ as the administrators are doing their best to weed out aggression.

“We don’t have enough pacers in the world. No one’s bowling fast because rules for short-pitched bowling have changed, batsmen are fully protected. The rules of the game are cutting aggression. You cannot even stare hard at the batsmen else they would fine you. They are taking all the aggression out of the game.

“What part of cricket is gentle? Let me ask you, women are playing, is it a female’s game? No. People who make all these rules make them sissy’s game,” he adds.

“As a spectator what do you like to see, aggression between batsman and a fast bowler. Cricket, when I played, wasn’t for the chicken-hearted, it was for people with a lion’s heart. Not anymore.”

The pace leader

Roberts, 66, took 202 wickets in a nine-year Test career from 1974, the spearhead of Clive Lloyd’s ploy to win matches with an all-out pace attack.

Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Winston Davis and Colin Croft all spread fear among the finest batsmen of the time.

The game has undergone transformation over the years and training methods of the bowlers too have changed. Gym work has become an integral part of the game. There are trainers who lay emphasis on that during off-season.

However, Roberts, a longtime critic of this method, reiterates the need to pay attention to the basics. “I have been asking all along, why do you need the gym? To build muscles? But is fast bowling about muscles, or is it about strength? You build strength only through running and speaking about the West Indies pacers, I think they are not doing enough running.

Not connected to the game

“Who are the ones bringing in all these types of training? Someone who has not played the game.”

Roberts says they are making a big issue out of burnout, but the fact is they don’t have enough strength.

“They may be playing more matches but they are spending less time on the field. T20 is four overs, ODIs are less and less now, it is 10 overs. In a Test match, you could bowl as many as 20-25 overs a day. Yeah, there are too many matches but (bowlers are) not spending time on field. They are bowling as much. We would play back-to-back ODIs, sometimes they’d fit in an ODI on the rest day. But now there is a gap.”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-vs-west-indies-2017/cricket-is-now-a-sissy-s-game-no-aggression-left-andy-roberts/story-gpmHxrk0QHNFosTLBssmpK.html

(06-22-2017, 11:33 PM)McLovin Wrote:  None of this would have been possible without Manohar. Absolute legend put his neck on the line for the betterment of the game. Hope he gets the recognition that he truly deserves. A new ICC logo perhaps ....