Zeecric Bureau
Melbourne: Cricket Australia on Friday dropped the nomination of former Primer Minister John Howard for International Cricket Council (ICC) vice-presidency on Friday.
Instead, the candidature of New Zealand Cricket chairman Alan Isaac has been put forth for the post after New Zealand and Australia were asked not to nominate another candidate following Howard’s rejection by the ICC executive board last month.
If elected, Isaac will serve as the ICC vice-president for two years before taking over as ICC president from Sharad Pawar in 2012.
However, rejection of Howard’s candidature has still not gone down well with Cricket Australia as the Board still considers the former Aussie Prime Minister to be the best candidate available for nomination for the position of Vice-President of the ICC.
“That the board unanimously reaffirms the credentials of John Howard to be the Australian and New Zealand nominee for the position of ICC Vice President. The board is disappointed and most concerned by the ICC Executive Board’s lack of support of his nomination and regards it as completely unacceptable that no reason has been provided as to why he has not been accepted. In the circumstances, the CA Board is not prepared to nominate any other candidate for the role,” Cricket Australia said in a media release on Friday.
“The CA Board accepts that the New Zealand nominee, Alan Isaac, is eminently qualified to fill the role of ICC Vice President and President, and given the stance of the ICC Executive Board with the nomination of Howard, will support his name being forwarded to the ICC for ratification,” it added.
CA chairman Jack Clarke said the CA Board remained disappointed that the joint Australia-New Zealand nomination of Howard had not been supported by the ICC Board, particularly as Australia and New Zealand had complied with the rotational ICC Vice Presidential nomination process.
“We still have been given no official reason why a strongly-credentialed candidate of Mr Howard’s qualification’s, skill and stature was not supported,” he said.
“We are not prepared to suggest another candidate but given it is clear Mr Howard will not be supported, we clearly have to consider a new approach. Accordingly, we are pleased to support New Zealand Cricket’s suggestion that Alan Isaac be nominated for the role,” Clarke added.