SYDNEY: Malcolm Speed, the former ICC chief executive, has slammed the boards that have blocked John Howard’’s nomination as the next ICC vice-president.
During the ICC annual meeting in Singapore it was confirmed that Howard didn”t have enough support, while Australia and New Zealand have been asked to nominate another candidate Speed, who was CEO from 2001 until 2008, was scathing in his assessment of what had taken place to undermine Howard’’s nomination, which itself was the subject of a compromise between Australia and New Zealand.
He said those who didn”t want Howard in the role are politically motivated.
“Howard has been rejected because his appointment would provide ICC with strong leadership that would thwart the ambitions of several current administrators to downgrade and devalue the role of the ICC,” Speed wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Howard would have stood in their path.
The role requires strength of character - a leader, diplomat, statesman and politician.
The ICC board is as political as any political party.
The countries that voted him down want a compliant figurehead who will do their bidding.” Speed added that Australia and New Zealand have previously accepted nominations despite reservations.
He said that they should decline to make another candidate available and instead pass the role onto Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are next in line on the rotation system, then refuse to vote themselves.
“In the meantime, they should be banging the table and making their displeasure widely known,” wrote Speed.
Cricket Australia’’s chairman Jack Clarke and his New Zealand Cricket counterpart Alan Isaac said in a joint statement they were “deeply disappointed” after supplying “the best possible candidate”.
“We jointly nominated Mr Howard as he possesses significant leadership and administrative skills,” they said.
“We believe cricket needs to continue to seek excellence and dispassionate independence in the game’’s global governance.
“We were delighted that the most senior world figure ever considered for this role agreed to accept the nomination.
We remain convinced it is reasonable for his nomination to be supported by the ICC executive board and we are deeply disappointed by the position taken.”
He described Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, as a ?buffoon? and cricket in Pakistan as ?a basket case?.
He said that the president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board is a nominee of the prime minister, and added that two of the BCB cricket presidents during his time with the ICC, had ended up in jail when there was a change of government.
?The last BCB president I encountered was an army general. He did not know the name of the Bangladesh captain, the team?s next opponents and the capacity of the new ground that had just been inaugurated in Dhaka. I was too polite to ask him whether he had ever been to a cricket match,? Speed said.
?When these two countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh) come forward with their joint nominee, Australia and New Zealand should politely refrain from voting.
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