Secret cricket talks in Chch

Press, 11 May 1979, Page 23

Secret cricket talks in Chch

Two senior members ot the International Cricket Conference, Messrs David Clark and Jack Bailey, will arrive in Christchurch tomorrow for confidential discussions with officials of the New Zealand Cricket Council. The top-secret nature of the meeting will ensure that no public announcements will be made, but it seems certain that recent developments between the “establishment” and “world series” organisations in Australia and the tcurs cycle for next summer will be included on the agenda. Probably, the talks will be informative, to bring New Zealand administrators up to date. Messrs Clark (the immediate past president of the 1.C.C.), Bailey (the secretary of both the I.C.C. and the M.C.C.) and Charles Palmer (the president of the 1.C.C.) are now in Australia, in conference with World Series Cricket executives.

If there are to be deviations from the international programme mapped out for 1979-80 they will not be made until representatives of all I.C.C. countries meet in England next month during the World Cup tournament.

Mr Palmer will not be in the delegation which is

coming to this country. Instead, he is to fly from Australia to have similar discussions with officials in India and Pakistan.

Hopes of a reconciliation between the rival cricket bodie., which competed for public interest in Australia last summer heightened when the Australian Cricket Board accepted the bid (believed to be worth SI.SM) of Mr Kerry Packer's television network for rights to big matches next season.

/.ustralia is scheduled to receive visits from India and England, while New Zealand is to have an extensive tour by the West Indians and one test against England at Auckland.

Australia, with its World Series players back in the fold, might seek to arrange a series against a full-strength West Indian side. If such a change was made, New Zealand could, at best, expect only a brief tour by the West Indians as an appendage to its Australian itinerary. Obviously, any decision which would restrict the length of the West Indian tour would have serious financial ramifications. The West Indians remain unchallenged as the most attractive draw-cards in cricket, and any replacement tour by another country would be an anticlimax.