The Anil Kumble-headed ICC Committee has expressed deep concerns over the quality of Test pitches and increasingly-dominant cricket bats, and their negative impact on the game.
"The committee discussed a number of other issues relating to Test cricket, expressing concern about the quality of Test pitches, and in particular the common practice of home countries overtly preparing surfaces to suit their own teams," an ICC release stated.
Interestingly, it was current ICC chairman Shashank Manohar's home ground in Nagpur that received a lot of flak and got an official warning from the ICC's pitches and grounds committee after a Test match between India and South Africa finished in two and half days.
"The presentation covered the performance of edge-detection systems (both heat-based and sound-based systems), and ball-tracking with predictive path, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each type of technology, and how each could contribute to increasing the number of correct decisions made across international matches," he said.
The committee also suggested that MCC should "strongly consider" limiting the dimensions of bats to restore balance to the game, which is increasingly becoming a batsman's plaything.
"The committee's view is that MCC should strongly consider limiting the dimensions of cricket bats to help achieve a better balance between bat and ball."
A detailed report, along with a list of recommended changes to DRS protocols will be finalised over coming weeks and presented to the ICC Chief Executives' Committee and Board meetings at the end of June.
There were also discussions on how Day-Night Test cricket could be spread keeping all the checks and balances.
"It stressed, however, that day-night Test cricket needs to be delivered to a consistently high standard across all member countries if the concept is to be successful, noting that the combination of ball, pitch, lighting levels and environmental conditions needed to allow for an even contest between bat and ball at all proposed day-night Test venues," stated the release.
The ICC Cricket Committee had a long discussion about the future use of technology in international cricket, and particularly umpiring, after receiving a presentation from the MIT engineers on their testing of the current technologies used as part of the Decision Review System (DRS).
