The Australian
28 June 2010
By Malcolm Conn
JOHN Howard is so unpopular in African cricket circles that South African officials refused to meet him last week to discuss the former prime minister’s nomination as president elect of the International Cricket Council.
This trenchant opposition has left Howard’s chances of becoming the next ICC vice-president on a “knife edge” according to one official.
What should have been a routine appointment months ago following his joint nomination by Australia and New Zealand will now be decided at an ICC executive board meeting in Singapore tomorrow and Wednesday.
Howard stopped in South Africa on the way to meeting Zimbabwe Cricket officials in Harare last week, wishing the Socceroos all the best and attempting to catch up with Cricket South Africa’s hierarchy.
Much to the amazement of some cricket officials and chagrin of others, Howard was snubbed, reinforcing SA’s opposition as a proxy for Zimbabwe.
Outgoing ICC president David Morgan is continuing to lobby India in particular in the hope that an already embarrassing stand-off will not become a full-scale schism which would destroy the ICC’s administrative process.
A guarded Morgan continued his unequivocal support of Howard last night.
“I believe he is an excellent candidate,” Morgan told The Australian from Singapore.
“He has the right experience and attributes to do an excellent job and thus far I’ve not heard any good reason from anybody as to why he should not be the next vice-president of the ICC.”
Morgan declined to discuss any details of Howard’s support levels but The Australian understands there has been no improvement from last week, when only five of the 10 so-called Test-playing countries were prepared to vote for him.
At least seven votes are required to become vice-president for a two-year term, which is automatically followed by a two-year term as president.
Zimbabwe’s strong private anti-Howard stance, even after last week’s meeting with ZC officials, is in stark contrast to the public utterances of its chief executive Ozias Bvute.
“A section of the international media has erroneously created the impression that we have been at the forefront of a motion to block Mr Howard’s nomination,” Bvute told Zimbabwe media.
“This is not only maliciously incorrect but also ignores the fact that our structures dictate that such a decision can only be taken by the ZC board which is in fact still to meet and state a position on the matter.”
Bvute also claimed that past tensions are unlikely to influence Zimbabwe’s final decision.
Despite ZC’s strong backroom opposition to Howard, who has been a long-time critic of brutal president Robert Mugabe’s regime, Zimbabwe sports minister David Coltart claims that ZC officials keep telling him they are not opposing Howard. Coltart has no direct links with ZC.