Tim May, the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA) has accused ICC of a "lack of respect", after their refusal to recognise a players' association. "The ICC has again demonstrated a complete lack of respect for international players and their interests," said May, "and as a result, FICA will be proposing a course of action for players to approve in order to address this matter." After the confusion and embarrassment of the sponsorship row that threatened to derail the Champions Trophy, the likelihood is of further contractual wranglings prior to the World Cup.

"Five of the 10 Test-playing boards are not in favour of a players' association," said Malcolm Gray, the president of ICC, after a meeting of the executive board in Colombo. He would not name those five countries, but they are likely to have been India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and the West Indies, none of whom have their own associations, and are therefore ineligible to join the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA).

As a compromise, ICC agreed that five of the 10 members of its influential Cricket Committee-Playing would be elected by the Test captains, and some of the recommendations made by the captains at their recent meetings were also set to be implemented. These include a limit of 15 Tests and 30 one-day internationals per calendar year for each country, and a minimum six-week break every year.

But FICA representatives will have no input into the game, a decision that infuriated May. "The ICC position is clear to all," he said. "They simply wish to retain an unhealthy and inequitable amount of power and continue to ignore the representations of those who will be directly affected by those decisions."

Unsurprisingly, Gray disagreed: "This restructuring, to include the direct input of players through representatives elected by the players, will improve the quality of decisions made by the ICC."

The board has also agreed to review player contracts for future ICC tournaments, with a special five-man committee set up to deal with the issues as they arise. "The lead-in to the ICC Champions Trophy highlighted that there are issues that need to be resolved in relation to player terms," admitted Gray. "The Board has now put in place a process to deal with these issues and this will be done over the coming weeks."

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