Mani slams PCB for making ill-informed statements

Former International Cricket Council president Ehsan Mani has sought to dismiss the notion that the game's world governing body does not have enough Asian representation and is dominated by the whites.

Referring to a statement made by Saleem Altaf, the chief executive Officer of Pakistan Cricket Board, that the decision to nominate Sharad Pawar as the next ICC chief was to increase the Asian influence in the ICC's decision making, Mani said a totally wrong impression is being created by the PCB.

"The statement reflects a disturbing lack of understanding of the decision-making process of the ICC by the PCB," he told PTI.

"All ICC decisions are made by a Board of directors, comprising presidents of the 10 Test-playing countries and three Associate Member representatives. The president and chief executive of the ICC do not have a vote.

"Every ICC decision requires the approval of 7 out of the 10 Test-playing countries. Four of the directors are from Asia and are therefore in a position to block any decision, which is not to their collective liking. Could there be a greater influence than this in the ICC decision-making?"

Mani, who completed his term last year after a one-year extension, was a nominee of the Pakistan board for the post of ICC president after having served for many years on many of its committees.

"I also find the comment that there must be more Asian representation in the ICC to increase Asia's influence as ill informed," Mani said.

"The Asian countries are all represented on the principal ICC committees such as the cricket and chief executives' committees which make all the decisions regarding the playing of the game. The Cricket committee has as its chairman a fifth Asian, Sunil Gavaskar. The ICC Governance Review Committee was chaired until recently by Shaharyar Khan, chairman PCB.

"The ICC Finance and Commercial affairs Committee has three member representatives, one of whom is Mr I S Bindra, a former president of the BCCI; I chaired this committee for many years," Mani noted.

He said the management team of the ICC under Chief Executive Malcolm Speed is mandated to implement the decisions of the Board.

"It has no authority to make policy decisions. Every decision of the ICC is supported collectively by the four Asian countries," he added.

He also stated that the ICC staff reflected the diversity of its membership.

"The Chief Executive is Australian, the head of Cricket Affairs, David Richardson is South African, the Chief Financial Officer is from Pakistan, the in-house legal counsel and secretary is a South African of Indian origin, the head of Corporate Affairs is English, the Commercial department is headed by an Australian. There are more Asians involved with the ICC today than ever before," he said.

"The ICC works on the basis of employing people on merit not on racial grounds," he stated.

Mani also lashed out at the observation regarding the revenues of the ICC being utilised out of Asia.

"The ICC recently signed a record media agreement which will bring unprecedented revenues to the game. I was privileged to have been a member of the team, which delivered this outstanding deal.

"What the PCB official fails to acknowledge is that the ICC does not retain one cent of these revenues and that all the money is distributed back to its members, the largest block to benefit from the ICC's success is, not surprisingly, Asia.

"Pakistan itself is set to receive approximately US $10 million per annum for the next eight years because of the new ICC deal."