A survey of the world's best cricketers revealed most players were underwhelmed by this year's World Cup and have little faith in the ICC's ability to govern the game.

In a damning assessment of the sport's showpiece event and the International Cricket Council, most of the 45 elite players surveyed admitted they were not satisfied by the governing body's ability to organise World Cups or the game.

The survey, conducted by the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA), found 56 per cent of players were both not satisfied by the ICC's ability to deliver World Cups and lacked confidence in the ICC governing cricket.

Significant numbers also said they had not been educated properly on matters such as corruption, doping and racism.

The survey found 89 per cent of players rated the recent World Cup in the Caribbean as either average (44 per cent), below average (38 per cent) or poor (eight per cent).

Only three per cent of respondents said the tournament was excellent, while eight per cent rated it good.

On top of the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, the World Cup was criticised for being too long, having too many lopsided matches, having a long and meaningless Super Eights stage and putting fans offside through a lack of atmosphere and steep ticket prices.

Australia's win over Sri Lanka in the final was also marred by rain and the inability of the umpires and match referee Jeff Crowe to call the match off because of light even though both sides had conceded the game over.

Those scenes of chaos made for an anti-climatic finish when the match eventually finished in darkness.

Just as alarming for the ICC, significant numbers of players said they were not properly educated on anti-doping, anti-corruption and anti-racism measures.

Fourteen per cent of players said they had not been properly educated by the ICC on its anti-doping policy, 16 per cent said they had not been adequately educated in anti-corruption matters and 18 per cent said they were not aware of their obligations under the sport's anti-racism code.

The survey was distributed to members of the FICA member nations, which includes Australia and the elite cricket-playing nations.

FICA said the players' responses towards the ICC's governing the game were "disturbing" and should be of "great concern" to the controlling body.

FICA said the findings showed it was time the ICC conducted an independent review to restructure the game and address current decision-making procedures.

"The ICC came across as out of touch with the rest of the cricketing world," it said.

"The players' growing opinion is that decisions are increasingly being made through self-interest and/or party alliances rather than what is best for the game."

Woolmer's murder, the crisis in Zimbabwe, the ball tampering row in last year's England-Pakistan Test, rampant scheduling and the drug cases involving Pakistan bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif are among the problems to have confronted the ICC in the past year.

FICA said despite better than expected playing conditions, venues and travel arrangements, the players returned a less than average rating of the World Cup.

"The less than average rating for the event is consistent with general viewer experience - small crowds, lack of enthusiasm, one-sided matches are not the recipe for a great report card," it said.

"The ICC should review the format, the length of the tournament and the need to ensure that the longest part of the tournament (Super Eights) consistently produces competitive cricket."

The vast majority of players - 87 per cent - thought this year's eight-week World Cup was too long. Thirteen per cent thought it was just right and three per cent not long enough.

FICA said players wanted the tournament reduced by between 10 and 14 days.

It said: "This is not unexpected - it was the players' position after the 2003 World Cup, it was the overwhelming opinion of all range of cricket stakeholders and clearly challenges the ICC to play more than one game per day during the Super Eights if it wants to retain the same format at future cricket World Cups."

Fifty-nine per cent of players thought the World Cup comprised too many matches, 46 per cent said 16 teams were too many and 36 per cent said this year's format should not be used in future tournaments.

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