FICA lambast ICC for delay in appointing chairperson
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|| CF Correspondent ||
Federation of International Cricketers' Associations director Heath Mills said that delay in finalizing the election protocol is ‘unacceptable’ adding that rather than dealing with politics that hurt all stakeholders including players and fans ICC should be think over over the future health of the game and how it should evolve.
‘’It is nearly two months since Shashank Manohar stepped down as ICC chairman and though the ICC Board has met several times which is supposed to finalise the election protocol they are yet to agree on any process, let alone choosing a unanimous candidate.
‘’It is a very disappointing situation at the moment with the lack of leadership at international level in our sport. It is a very poor reflection on the game actually. The previous chairman [Manohar] stepped down a couple of months ago now, but prior to that I'm not sure how engaged he was there for some time,’’ Mills was quoted in a leading cricket website.
‘’And sadly it appears that the ICC Board can't even organise itself to determine a process to elect a new chairman, let alone appoint someone. It is really disappointing especially at this particular juncture in time when we need global leadership given the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on many countries and the fact the current events cycle ends in a couple of years. Electing a chairperson for any board should be a pretty basic democratic election process and the fact that can't be achieved should have all cricket people concerned. The current events cycle is going to finish soon in just over two years and we currently don't know what the ICC events schedule will be post-2023. We don't know what the FTP looks like post-2023 for both the men's and women's games. We don't know how ICC events are going to fit in with that FTP or how both these international programmes are going to fit with the big [domestic] T20 events,’’ he said.
‘’This is the time when we need a global body that should be trying to bring everyone together to determine a schedule that works for the whole game including men, women, full members, associate members and the big T20 leagues. Yet the ICC Board can't seem to even sort out who is going to get to chair it,’’ he said.
‘’Frankly I just think that's just unacceptable. Someone needs to stand up and explain to the cricketing stakeholders why they can't agree a process, and why all the secrecy? The ICC Board, whether they like it or not, effectively represents all the various cricketing stakeholders around the world. They have a high office and they need to be accountable. We just hope they can get together, agree a process, elect the leader and stop any games occurring behind the scenes. At the moment it just sort of feels like everyone's in a state of inertia,’’ he added.
