ICC slams FICA for "confrontational attitude" over Siva's election

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has hit back at the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA), saying the latter has taken a confrontational stance over the election of Laxman Sivaramakrishnan to the ICC’s cricket committee The ICC expressed its anger and disappointment at the statement put out by FICA Executive Chairman Paul Marsh which claimed that cricket’s governing body had done nothing about FICA’s complaint about the vote for six weeks. [caption id=“attachment_912489” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The ICC is angry about FICA’s stance over the cricket committee election. Reuters[/caption] Disputing FICA’s version of events, the ICC said the two sides had been working behind the scenes to sort out the situation. Both parties had met in London on 25 June after weeks of “communications and discussions” with a view to resolving the issues which had been raised by FICA. “It was mutually agreed with the FICA representative that major progress had been made to resolve any perceived deficiencies in the ICC Cricket Committee election system and we believed that, at the end of the meeting, we were close to reaching an outcome that was acceptable to the players and their representatives,” the ICC said in a statement. The ICC said they believe FICA’s statement is a breach of trust and that the “confrontational approach is not in the best interests of the game or the players. “ICC is angry and disappointed that Mr Marsh chose to notify ICC of this change of direction only at 1.31am UK time on Thursday and then issued their misleading statement at 4.30am on the same day – when all Board members and executives, in London for ICC Annual conference, were asleep, the statement said. “These actions do not reflect the spirit in which ICC and, we believed, FICA entered into what appeared to be meaningful and productive dialogue nor reflect a willingness to work together to provide a satisfactory conclusion to this issue.” The vote, which took place earlier this year, became controversial after it was alleged that some boards had put pressure on their captains to change their vote after May had reportedly received nine of the ten captains’ votes, with the BCCI believed to be pulling the levers behind the scenes to ensure Siva’s election. The ICC has admitted there was a re-vote, but said it was for procedural reasons. FICA has claimed there were three votes in total.