Pawar not competent enough to head ICC: Malcolm Speed

NEW DELHI: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar ascension to the post of ICC president on Thursday reignited the racial debate in the cricketing world with former ICC CEO Malcolm Speed, known for his pro-white biases, questioning the regime change.

Mr Speed, who’s gained notoriety for his racial prejudices and whose stint as the ICC CEO was marred by allegations of a brazenly partisan behaviour, questioned the decision to hand over the ICC baton to Mr Pawar, contending that the latter was not competent enough to lead the cricketing world.

In a newspaper article, Mr Speed said that if John Howard was rejected for inexperience, then even Sharad Pawar does not qualify to be ICC president as he knows little about cricket administration.
Mr Speed also said that ICC presidentship will be part-time job for him because he is a serving minister in the government of India.

“The man who is to be the next ICC president, Sharad Pawar, is the minister for agriculture in the Indian government – a serious full-time job, feeding 1.2 billion people. He is a good and fair man but he will be working part-time as ICC president and, take it from me, he knows little about cricket administration,” he said.

Mr Speed’s latest rant was seen as a retaliatory attack against the Afro-Asian members of the ICC, who had joined hands to block Mr Howard’s attempts to become its Vice-President.

The former Australian prime minister had incurred the wrath of the African and Asian cricket playing nations on account of the tough immigration laws enacted by him during his stint in power.

Mr Speed, who came out in Mr Howard’s defence, had himself been forced to step down from the post of the ICC CEO in 2008 because of his views towards Zimbabwe.

The cricketing world now threatens to be split apart because of the resurrection of racial prejudices. Mr Speed’s utterances are not likely to go down well with the Afro-Asian countries.

The balance of power is tilted in favour on the latter because of the financial clout wielded by them. They now lend financial muscle to the ICC.

Undeterred by Mr Speed’s assault, Mr Pawar took over as the new ICC boss on Thursday, and immediately said that cricket matches between India and Pakistan could resume soon if both governments give the go ahead.

“Recent home minister and foreign secretary's visit to Pakistan is a welcome sign. If India and Pakistan start playing and it influences the bilateral relations of the two countries and also if both the governments permit, we will be happy to encourage," Mr Pawar told a private TV channel.

Mr Pawar said the ICC wanted India and Pakistan to continue their bilateral series. “But ICC had not taken the initiative to stop that.

It was because of some unforeseen circumstances that both the countries had decided to stop it. But now that the process to improve relations between the countries is on, it will give some dividends to cricket too,” he said.