South Africa cricket captain Graeme Smith has joined a growing band of players and officials calling on the game's leaders in the International Cricket Council to provide the sport with a clearer and better defined direction about its future.
'I really believe the challenges that face the game are not the formats of the game, it's the leadership of the game, the administration,' Smith said while promoting his book Graeme Smith: A Captains Diary 2007-2009 (Jonathan Ball Publishers), this week.
Smith's call was echoed by top players including England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and India's opening batsman Gautam Gambhir.
With the proliferation of 20-over cricket in recent years players have expressed concern over the excessive loads they're having to bear.
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New Zealand Cricket only just averted a clash with its players who have contracts with the Indian Premier League on Friday.
The Black Caps are due to tour Australia in 2010 but the trip coincides with the IPL that had to be brought forward to accommodate the third edition of the World T20 championship, which takes place in the Caribbean in April.
The chief executive of New Zealand cricket, Justin Vaughan said the issue was likely to recur again.
'The onus is on international cricket to pro-actively search for solutions so that players are not forced to make difficult decisions in the future,' said Vaughan.
Smith called for greater input from the players into the ICC's decision-making process, saying he was not satisfied that the players' opinions were being considered.
'I think from a player's point of view there's a lot of apprehension about the ICC and the direction that they are going and whether they are making the right decisions for the game,' said Smith.
The Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (Fica), an amalgamation of various players' unions from around the world, has been working with the ICC behind the scenes, but Smith believes that there's a lot of room for improvement as far the relationship is concerned.
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