Players’ chief fears lives could be lost due to ICC’s cost-cutting
The disbanding of a key ICC Medical Committee is in danger of putting cricketers' lives at risk. That is the warning from the head of the international players union (FICA), and comes in a week which saw the retirement of England star James Taylor after he was diagnosed with the congenital heart condition arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).
FICA chief, Tony Irish, has told The Independent that there is currently no minimum benchmark for the screening of international cricketers and revealed that the ICC committee which was slated to set that benchmark no longer exists after the plug was pulled on it over a year ago.
Irish has called for that committee to be reinstated as soon as possible but expressed concerns that a lack of leadership in this area at the top of the game means that some players in the international arena lack the medical protection enjoyed by others.
“FICA believes there should be at least a minimum benchmark f or screening all international players around the world,” Irish said. “This should be set by an ICC medical committee, unfortunately this committee was disbanded a year or two ago. One of the actions we have motivated following the release of the FICA health and safety report last year is that this medical committee should be re-established.
“I’m unsure at this stage that routine screening would necessarily have picked up James’s condition but what has happened should without doubt lead to some focus on, at the very least, a minimum standard for player screenings.”
Players undergo mandatory screenings in the English county game and while the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has screened all players under the age of 20 – screening them again at 23 or 24 – since 2008, other governing bodies do not have such stringent regimes in place.
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