The union of elite cricketers wants a complete revamp of the International Cricket Council and is considering the possibility of a breakaway organization to administer the sport. The Federation of International Cricketers' Association (FICA), which includes representatives from every Test-playing nation except India, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, meets May 26 in Austin, Texas. The location was chosen because it's where chief executive Tim May lives. But businessman Allen Stanford, who is behind a proposed $20 million challenge match between England and an all-star West Indian team, also hails from Texas. FICA's legal adviser, Ian Smith, said the two-day conference would discuss the Stanford Challenge, the rival Indian Premier and Indian Cricket Leagues, as well as the administration of the ICC and the status of cricket in troubled Zimbabwe. “It's a very wide agenda,” Smith said. “There's a great deal that has happened in the last year. It's very important for us to get on top of it all.” The main issue is how cricket is governed in a changing climate. Smith said India and Pakistan had no history of industrial relations, yet that was where the center of cricket was moving. “At the executive level, we have a good relationship with the ICC,” Smith said. “The problem is when matters go beyond the executive. The problem is that where the money is in cricket, there is no industrial relations. The players are peripheral to it all – they are simply ignored.” Smith said unless his body was satisfied with the ICC, players would consider breaking away and setting up their own organization. “We believe that because the players are better organized and that talent has been radically re-valued by the Indian leagues, it's time to look at whether the players can do a better job than the current policy makers,” Smith said. FICA is also angered by a series of badly handled events by the ICC in the past year, including the World Cup in the West Indies, the umpiring scandal involving Darrell Hair and the mishandling of the Harbhjan Singh's racism charge. “We know that if someone came along and said let's do a 10-year, $1.9 billion deal and create a world circus of cricket, we could take the top 200 players in the world into that circus if there is a guaranteed good income, good competition and good standard of living,” Smith said. “All it takes is one broadcast deal,” he added. IPL boycott The news agencies were Thursday unable to cover the Indian Premier League cricket because of “unacceptable restrictions” on the distribution of photographs. The new Twenty20 event kicks off in Bangalore on Friday when Dravid's Bangalore Royal Challengers take on Sauruv Ganguly's Kolkata Knight Riders in a match scheduled to begin at 5.30 P.M. (Saudi time). According to Cricinfo minutes after a “short, sharp and sweet” opening ceremony to launch the inaugural edition of the Twenty20 tournament, the organizers are planning to switch off the floodlights at the Chinnaswamy Stadium before Dravid and Ganguly walk on to the filed for the toss under spotlights. The cricket website, quoting an official, reported that the most poignant moment of the opening ceremony would be when all the captains gather mid-pitch to jointly read out a pledge reaffirming the Indian Premier League's faith in the spirit of cricket. The rest of the ceremony will be a blend of fireworks, aerial gymnasts, performers in a bubble suspended over the ground and some Bollywood glitter with the presence Shah Rukh Khan, also the co-owner of the Kolkata team, and Preity Zinta, co
