Former Prime Minister John Howard is set to become president of the International Cricket Committee in 2012 after Australian and New Zealand cricket officials agreed to nominate him for the position.
Cricket Australia and New Zealand cricket officially nominated Howard on Tuesday after months of discussion and dispute over who would be their joint candidate.
CA pushed hard for Howard while NZC was equally adamant the man for the job was former NZC chairman Sir John Anderson.
Under the ICC presidency rotation, an Australasian candidate fills the role for a two-year term from 2012.
David Morgan, who is currently in the chair, is due to hand over to India’s Sharad Pawar for a two-year period to start in mid-2010.
Howard said he was honoured and humbled to receive the joint Australia-New Zealand invitation but did not want to comment until his nomination had become official in June.
The inability of CA and NZC to make a decision led to both boards forming a joint nominations committee, headed by an independent chairman in respected Australian businessman Sir Rod Eddington.
In a joint statement, CA chairman Jack Clarke and his NZ counterpart Alan Isaac said the final decision came down to the input of Eddington.
“We are pleased that an eminent candidate in John Howard has agreed, after an exhaustive process, to take the role of joint Australia-New Zealand nominee for the ICC presidency,” they said.
“It was an extremely difficult decision and ultimately relied on the input of Sir Rod Eddington, whom both cricket boards respect enormously.”
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Jeff Dowsing said | March 2nd 2010 @ 3:16pm | Report comment
‘Cricket tragic’? Just plain tragic.
Hammer said | March 2nd 2010 @ 3:39pm | Report comment
This is a massively disappointing decision on so many levels …
True Tah said | March 2nd 2010 @ 3:55pm | Report comment
What else would you expect from Sir Rod Eddington?
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | March 2nd 2010 @ 3:58pm | Report comment
Cricket Australia: you have just lost any respect that I had left your organisation.
Brian said | March 2nd 2010 @ 4:03pm | Report comment
why ? best PM in recent memory
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | March 2nd 2010 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
That is very debatable….. but mainly he has no experience in Cricket Administration, and he is not exactly an inclusive character, especially if you don’t have white skin.
Brian said | March 2nd 2010 @ 4:55pm | Report comment
what a ridiculous comment – racist remark – ask Noel Pearson, Hu Jintao, SBY, the Japanese, the Indian PM Singh what he was like to deal with?
cricket administration? Howard ran Australia, the 12th largest economy in the world for 11.5 years……..and extremely well by any measure …….sure be critical of skills but I hardly think he is under-qualified
WRT Rod Eddington he is an ALP die-hard so the fact he was instrumental in appointing Howard probably tells me he is good for the job
next ball
Sam said | March 2nd 2010 @ 5:06pm | Report comment
He has no experience in sports admin. Completely awful decision. Sir John Anderson has been involved in cricket administration and management for years and would have been perfect for the job. Maybe you want to read http://www.theroar.com.au/2010/02/02/antipodean-icc-candidate-should-be-sir-john-anderson/ for a more in depth discussion of the two candidates.
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | March 3rd 2010 @ 8:54am | Report comment
http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/mi/1/mi1kuhn.pdf
Bowled
Brian said | March 2nd 2010 @ 6:24pm | Report comment
spiro zavos quotes peter roebuck ………roebuck cannot stand howard and ponting – I am not sure who more…..he has no credibility………so hardly much of a comeback
sir john anderson ? I agree a very solid resume…..however picture this……walking into rupert murdoch’s office (or equivalent in India etc) to renegotiate cricket tv rights and scheduling, who would you want in your delegation, John Anderson, former bank chief and sports administrator from New Zealand or JWH, former PM of Australia who resided over the golden years of both Australia but also of it cricket sides?
anyway we could do with a dose of liberal rule back in canberra now to stop the spending spree and unabated recklessness of the current government
Sylvester said | March 2nd 2010 @ 8:01pm | Report comment
Still Sir John for me.
He has been trusted with several high-profile directorships in NZ and handled some very tricky situations, especially at TVNZ.
I’t would be a good bet that he has earned the respect of the game’s powerbrokers after such a long term on the ICC executive.
Chris said | March 2nd 2010 @ 6:34pm | Report comment
Absolutely brilliant decision. Given what this man did for the Australian economy (with some help from Hawke), before Rudd went on his debt-a-thon, I can’t wait to see what he can do for cricket!