Howard's bid to lead ICC hit for a six

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SINGAPORE: Former Australian prime minister John Howard's bid to lead world cricket has been derailed, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said yesterday, after a revolt by Asian and African nations.

A statement from the ICC board at a meeting in Singapore said the right-wing politician's nomination to serve as president of world cricket's governing body had failed to muster enough backing.

"Following lengthy consideration it was recognised that the nomination (of Howard) put forward by Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket did not have sufficient support within the ICC board," the ICC said in a statement.

"No vote was taken," added the statement.

Opposition from Asian and African nations sealed the fate of Howard, 70, who has no experience in cricket administration and who, when he was Australia's premier, clashed with some of the countries now opposed to his ICC bid.

Howard told Sky News that he did not know why his candidacy had been rejected, and that it would set a "bad precedecent" if this was because of his politics.

Former BCCI chief Sharad Pawar, an Indian government minister who has served as ICC vice-president for the past two years, takes over from outgoing president David Morgan of England today.

Howard, who was Australia's prime minister from 1996 to 2007, would have assumed the ICC vice-presidency before assuming full leadership in mid-2012 under a system that rotates the job between cricket's regional blocs.

Howard had been touted by Cricket Australia as a veteran political operator who would boost the ICC's profile in international sport, at a time when more money is coming into the game than ever before.

Credentials

Praising his credentials anew yesterday, the Australian and New Zealand boards said: "We were delighted that the most senior world figure ever considered for this role agreed to accept the nomination."

But six of the 10 Test-playing nations had signed a letter opposing Howard's bid amid anger that New Zealand's former cricket board chairman, John Anderson, had been overlooked.

A seventh nation, Zimbabwe, did not sign the letter but was "one of the main agitators against him", respected cricket journalist Malcolm Conn, who first revealed the letter, wrote in The Australian newspaper.

"Howard's only supporters were the three white nations:

Australia, New Zealand and England, reinforcing the power of the Afro-Asia bloc in world cricket," Conn said.

A source familiar with the Singapore talks confirmed to AFP the existence of the letter and that six of the 10 Test nations had ruled out Howard's bid.

Howard is a self-described "cricket tragic" who has regularly been seen watching the game around the world since losing office in November 2007.

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