Cricket Australia is considering the radical step of injury substitutes in matches.
The Curtain report into the death of Test batsman Phillip Hughes recommends the introduction of concussion substitutes.
CA chief executive James Sutherland said on Tuesday the national body supported it and had put the idea of injury substitutions to the ICC.
But Sutherland added it was a complex issue that needed plenty of discussion and analysis before it happened.
“One of the fundamentals of cricket is it’s a game of 11 players and a substitute has not been allowed in the past,” Sutherland said.
“The fundamental issue here is the desire for medical staff to have the ultimate say in an incident of concussion.
“It’s complicated and it needs to be thought through, because it’s not just a simple issue about health and safety.
“It’s also about some of the fundamentals in terms of how the game is played and has always been played.”
Sutherland said concussion was not the only injury that might lead to a substitution.
“That again is why this needs to be a broader discussion than just simply about concussion,” he said.
Sutherland was speaking after the release of the Curtain report.
Melbourne barrister David Curtain QC handed his findings to CA in November and they were given to Hughes’ family in January.
It is 18 months since Hughes was felled by a bouncer in a Sheffield Shield match and died in hospital two days later.
“There’s not a day that goes by when we don’t think of Phillip,” Sutherland said.
“This report won’t bring him back and it won’t do anything to ease the pain of his family or his loved ones who miss him most.
“But we do have a responsibility and a duty to ensure something like this never happens again.
“I said at the time, it was a freak accident – but still it was a freak accident too many.”
The injury substitutes are among a raft of recommendations contained in the report.
Some, such as the use British-standard batting helmets, are already in place.
At this stage, there are no plans to trial substitutions in Sheffield Shield because those matches have first-class status.
But Sutherland said the ICC cricket committee would look at the idea later this month.
He added it was a “natural extension” that the idea would be discussed for Test cricket.
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