Speed backs Howard for ICC presidency

Sydney, Feb 4(ANI): Former CEO of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and a past Australian chairman Malcolm Speed has said that the sport is lucky to have former Prime Minister John Howard as a candidate for the presidency of the council.

Howard is Cricket Australia's (CA) preferred candidate for the position, but CA and New Zealand Cricket are at loggerheads over who will represent the Antipodes when the ICC's vice-presidency becomes available this year.

The ICC is awaiting Australia and New Zealand to agree on their candidate, as New Zealand wants its former chairman Sir John Anderson to be appointed as vice-president when India's Sharad Pawar assumes the top job.

Speed believes that Howard was qualified for the position despite having never worked as a cricket administrator.

"I think it is a great problem for cricket to have two such extraordinarily well-qualified men to have expressed interest in the onerous task of the presidency of the ICC," The Age quoted Speed, as saying.

Under the ICC rules, the antipodean vice-president would be elevated to the presidency when Pawar's term expires in 2012. (ANI)