Cricket Australia will back a New Zealand candidate as International Cricket Council vice president due to opposition to its own nomination, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
New Zealand Cricket has proposed its chairman, businessman Alan Isaac, for the role and Cricket Australia said in a statement on Friday it now supported that nomination.
The Australian board reaffirmed Howard’s credentials and said it was “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”.
The former Australian Prime Minister’ nomination was voted down at an ICC executive board meeting in Singapore in early July by six of 10 test-playing nations voting mainly along racial lines. His election should have been a formality as, by convention, the vice presidency changes hands every two years on a rotational basis. After two years the vice president becomes the ICC president. “The CA board accepts that the New Zealand nominee, Mr 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 Mr Howard, will support his name being forwarded to the ICC for ratification,” Cricket Australia said in the statement.
Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke said the 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 previously 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 qualifications, skill and stature was not supported,” Clarke said.
“Our directors were on Friday very strongly of the view that Mr Howard continues to be the best candidate CA could nominate. 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.” Howard, a conservative, was Australian Prime Minister for 11 years before his coalition government was swept from power in 2007. While he has been a regular attendee at Test matches and describes himself as a “cricket tragic”, he doesn’t have experience as a cricket administrator. His name should have been submitted in January but even Australia and New Zealand initially were divided over his selection.
Zimbabwe, which was angered by Howard’s successful efforts to keep it out of the Commonwealth, spearheaded the opposition.