Pawar was not against Howard's candidature: Morgan

Sharad Pawar had no objection to John Howard's nomination as ICC Vice President but the support for the former Australian Premier started diminishing in the last week which led to his rejection, former ICC chief David Morgan said on Friday.

It has been widely perceived that India was instrumental in Asian bloc's rejection of Howard's candidature.

However, Morgan, who was replaced by Pawar as the ICC President on Thurday, insisted that Pawar had actually backed Howard's nomination.

"There had been a significant shift downwards in the level of support - that is a shift of support away from John Howard in the last week," Morgan said.

"They went through a rigorous process to choose between two excellent candidates and I am disappointed that I was unable to push that nomination through.

"The new president (Pawar) and I had supported the nomination but unfortunately I was unable to see it through," Morgan said.

Howard's candidacy for the ICC vice-president's post meted with strong opposition from the Afro-Asian bloc, which eventually forced the ICC Executive Board to reject his name.

The rejection, however, angered Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket, who had nominated Howard, and Morgan said the two boards were justified in their sharp reaction.

 "There's been no clear indication of what objections there were and that is disappointing in many ways to Australia and New Zealand," Morgan was quoted as saying by Cricinfo.

Morgan feels this controversy may adversely affect the system of putting forward a candidate on rotation basis.

"The rotational system was used for the first time this time. There is a commitment to retain it but I have my doubts that it will stand," he said.

As per the present system, candidates are nominated by a pair of regionally-aligned nations on rotational basis.

Howard was Australia and New Zealand's choice, while Pakistan and Bangladesh are next in line to put forward a nomination, followed by a candidate from India and Sri Lanka, England and West Indies and South Africa and Zimbabwe.