Players' chief fears lives could be lost due to ICC cost-cutting

Irish calls for improved heart screening across the game

James Taylor has been forced to retire due to health issues (Instagram)

The disbanding of a key ICC Medical Committee is in danger of putting cricketers' lives at risk.

That is the warning from the head of the international players union (FICA), and comes in a week which saw the retirement of England star James Taylor after he was diagnosed with the congenital heart condition arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).

FICA chief, Tony Irish, has told The Independent that there is currently no minimum benchmark for the screening of international cricketers and revealed that the ICC committee which was slated to set that benchmark no longer exists after the plug was pulled on it over a year ago.

Irish has called for that committee to be reinstated as soon as possible but expressed concerns that a lack of leadership in this area at the top of the game means that some players in the international arena lack the medical protection enjoyed by others.

“FICA believes there should be at least a minimum benchmark for screening all international players around the world,” Irish said. “This should be set by an ICC medical committee, unfortunately this committee was disbanded a year or two ago. One of the actions we have motivated following the release of the FICA health and safety report last year is that this medical committee should be re-established.

“I’m unsure at this stage that routine screening would necessarily have picked up James’s condition but what has happened should without doubt lead to some focus on, at the very least, a minimum standard for player screenings.”

Players undergo mandatory screenings in the English county game and while the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has screened all players under the age of 20 – screening them again at 23 or 24 – since 2008, other governing bodies do not have such stringent regimes in place.

The ECB has already begun a review of its procedures before Taylor’s shock diagnosis earlier this week but a void at the top of the global game means that some international cricketers with potentially easier to detect heart conditions could go undiagnosed.

“Some boards have medical screening arrangements in place and others don’t,” Irish said. “The ECB is one of those which does. I’m unsure of exactly what screening was done with James but I understand that his condition is such that the normal screening may not have picked this up in any event. Medical provision varies from country to country but when something like this happens it should be a wake-up call to everyone to review what they have in place.”

That call has been deafening this week, with Taylor’s case bringing back memories of Fabrice Muamba’s collapse while playing for Bolton back in March 2012. As with Taylor, Muamba’s condition went undetected during the screening process.

Taylor was on the brink of establishing himself in the England side after breaking back into the team during England’s Test series against Pakistan in the UAE this winter. His immediate retirement means he will not have the chance to add to his seven Test caps.

England captain Alastair Cook was quick to express his shock at the news but said he believed Taylor’s retirement could lead to better screening provision for players in the future.

“Can we do more? Of course,” said Cook on Sky. “It’s another checkpoint for the ECB to make sure everything is in place. One of the legacies that James could leave might be to protect a number of other players.”

The new head of the Professional Cricketers Association (PCA) David Leatherdale agrees. “Each county screens every player when they join the staff and continues to do on a regular basis,” he said. “Every county cardiac screens every single player. It’s not easy to detect [ARVC], it is one of those things that you could do certain tests on certain players and it would show up and certain tests on others and it potentially wouldn’t.

“There is always more you can probably do but the key thing is that everyone is screened. From the PCA’s perspective we will want to make sure that everybody is and if there are opportunities to enhance medical screening as technology improves then that’s something we would obviously like to see happen.”

FICA is now intent on ensuring that its international membership is similarly well-protected.