DUBAI: Elections to decide who will replace Shashank Manohar as the next chairman of the International Cricket Council will be between New Zealand Cricket’s Gregor Barclay and Imran Khwaja of Singapore.
October 18 was the last day for filing nominations and a one-month window has been kept by the ICC Board to see if it can have an unanimous candidate.
It should come as no surprise that BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, whose name had been bandied about in the intitial stages, has kept out of the race considering that the Supreme Court has chosen to look the other way on the matter of his being legally bound to demit office as per the conditions laid down by the Justice RM Lodha Committee. The fact that the apex court had signed off on the Lodha committee’s recommendations is a matter that Ganguly can blissfully ignore while he continues to enjoy the perks that come with being the head of the richest and most powerful cricketing body in the world.
Coming back to the two candidates in the fray, a senior official, privy to developments in the ICC Board, told PTI: “As of now, it looks like there will be an election between Barclay and Khwaja, who is ICC’s acting chairman. They are the only two who have filed nominations. Both have their share of support in the board.”
In a 17-member ICC board, 16 can cast their vote (17th member is CEO Manu Sawhney without voting rights) and as per the existing rules, either Barclay or Khwaja would need 11 votes (2/3rd of board) to become the next chairman, PTI reports.
Barclay has the support of India, England and Australia among others, while Khwaja – who has the backing of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and ICC’s independent female director Indra Nooyi (how dare an Indian support a PCB candidate some perpetually outraged armchair ultra nationalists will decry) among a few others – will require a total of six votes to ensure he continues to remain in the chair, reports Times of India.
Khawaja has been the acting chairman of the ICC for close to four months since Manohar stepped down on July 1st. Barclay, on the other hand, is being seen as a “consensus” candidate, considering he has the backing of the ICC’s full-members.
