Johanesburg, September 17: South Africa captain Graeme Smith has called on the ICC to tackle the Future Tours Programme head-on to avoid a precedent being set by Andrew Flintoff’s rejection of his ECB contract and decision to turn free-lancer.
According to a report in cricinfo, Smith said international cricket remained his number one priority, but with the money on offer in cricket in the recent few years, it might not be so for a lot of players, since playing careers are limited and everyone will want to maximize their earnings.
Smith felt that a cutting down of ‘meaningless’ tournaments would be a good start.
“I don’t think you can blame the individual, but it’s an interesting time for cricket, and interesting to see where it goes now,” Smith was quoted as saying by the website. “The crucial aspect is the decisions the leadership makes in the future. The ICC needs to give cricket a good direction, and crucial to that is how they look at the Future Tours Programme, because the decisions they make around that are going to be so important for the future of the game.
“For me international cricket is still the pinnacle,” he said. “But you can’t hide the fact that huge financial rewards and benefits for players have come into the game in the last few years, and it’s obviously such a short career, so you want to make as much money in that time as possible. But I think playing for your country is the best, and the most important thing for us is to carry on being as successful as possible and try not to be distracted by other things that are taking place.”
The FTP is going to expire in 2012, and a new programme will have to be put in place. There have been calls to have a World Championship of Test cricket instead of the FTP. But whatever format is agreed on, Smith said a greater importance has to be attached to international matches and that would only happen when meaningless matches are cut out of the calendar. Smith cited the current Australia-England seven-match ODI series as an example:
“With the greatest respect, the seven ODIs taking place in England at the moment are more for financial benefit than meaningful cricket,” he said. “People want to see strength for strength, they want to see international sides trying their best in competitive tours. I mean, the Ashes was great to watch, it was competitive down to the last Test match, and speaking for myself as a cricketer, that’s how you want to see all cricket being played.
“But all these meaningless tours just sap your body, especially when you are playing away from home for a long time,” he added. “I think the ICC needs to really look at the format going forward, and really take control of the international game.”
Speaking about Flintoff’s decision to go freelance, Smith said he didn’t blame Freddie Flintoff for taking the decision he had. “I don’t think you can blame Fred for the decision that he’s made. He’s had a very successful career, and at this stage of his career, he wants to maximize his worth and really take control of things. He’s had a number of injuries, and for his own good, he needs to take control of the few years he has left in him.”
However, for the present, Smith is not too thinking too much about the future of the game and wants to concentrate instead on the immediate task at hand – winning the Champions Trophy.
“It’s a terrific time to be a sportsman in South Africa, and to be a role model,” said Smith. “When you think about our readmission after the apartheid years, we’ve got a young country in many ways, and our sport is going from strength to strength at the moment. The opportunity is there to grow, and the better that South African teams can be, the more the youngsters will want to be the heroes of the future. The Champions Trophy is another opportunity for that.”
—–Agencies