The ICC, under fire from a number of direction for its handling of the World Cup, received a broadside from Niranjan Shah, the Indian board secretary, for becoming “more and more bureaucratic” and costing its members money by “unnecessarily employing so many people”. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Shah hinted that it was possible that Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, might face an unprecedented no-confidence motion at the next meeting of the executive board in June.
“It is something we will discuss with our board,” Shah said. “Some of it will depend on how other boards are feeling. It is fair to say that there are quite a few things to sort out at the next chief executives’ meeting.”
While the relationship between the ICC and the Indian board has been frosty, the stinging attacks on the way the World Cup has been organised may well turn out to be the watershed.
“We are not that satisfied,” Shah told the newspaper. "It is becoming more and more bureaucratic. My board is of the belief that cricket is a simple, enjoyable game, but that is not how it appears at present.
“The ICC has so many staff members. It is unnecessarily employing so many people and that costs the other members. The ICC should move away from the bureaucracy and become more simplified. They should be concentrating more on the game.”
Shah’s comments were backed by Lalit Modi, the BCCI’s vice-president, who called on Speed to be replaced by someone from Africa or Asia who “understands the problems of a majority of ICC members”
Shah's comments were backed by Lalit Modi, the BCCI's vice-president, who called on Speed to be replaced by someone from Africa or Asia who "understands the problems of a majority of ICC members"
Please don't use someone from South Africa (Africa)!!! Presently we have too many morons running our own game. Don't let them ruin the international game as well... Rather use someone from Asia.
KARACHI: Pakistan will support India if it initiated a vote of no-confidence against the top officials of the ICC, sources told ‘The News’ on Monday.
According to well-placed sources, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would strongly back the Indian board if it decided to go for a no-confidence motion against ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed and a few other officials at the next meeting of the ICC Executive Board pencilled in for June.
A top official of the BCCI hinted in a newspaper interview on Monday that India can consider initiating a move to get rid of Speed because under him the ICC is becoming “more and more bureaucratic”.
“The ICC is costing its members money by unnecessarily employing so many people,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah was quoted as saying in an interview. Indian cricket officials have been at loggerheads with top ICC bosses on various issues ranging from money matters to the ICC’s Future Tour Programme (FTP).
The Indians, like the rest of the international cricket community, have also strongly criticized the ICC for an unsuccessful World Cup in the Caribbean. Shah said that a final decision on a no-confidence move against ICC officials at the meeting of chief executives later this summer would depend on a feed-back from other member nations.
Sources said that the PCB officials have been closely observing this development and are willing to support the proposed move when the time comes. Like India, Pakistan have had their problems with the ICC in recent times especially during and after The Oval fiasco in England last summer.
Sources said that Pakistan would throw their weight behind a proposal to get an Asian or an African appointed as the ICC Chief Executive. The proposal has been made by Lalit Modi, BCCI’s vice-president. Dr Ahsan Malik, PCB’s Media Director, told this correspondent that so far there haven’t been any discussions among the Board officials on this issue.
Indian board ko baithay baithay ungle hoti hai... and Pak board is holding several grudges against Speed. So its a marriage made in heaven. Speed is an ass and I can think of a bunch of reasons why he should be booted out. Not sure if ICC bureacracy is at the top of my list.
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/293035.html No immediate no-confidence plans - Indian board
The Board of Control of Cricket in India has no immediate plans to table a no-confidence motion against the International Cricket Council, contrary to reports appearing in the media.
“There is no question of any individual deciding on an action like this,” a top BCCI official, who just returned from the West Indies, told Cricinfo. “A no-confidence motion is a serious issue and before we take any action like this it has to be discussed within the BCCI and also among other nation members to see if there is some sort of consensus.”
The buzz that the BCCI would table a no-confidence motion against the ICC has been doing the round since Niranjan Shah, the secretary of the Indian board, made statements to this effect - which he subsequently denied - while still in the West Indies, shortly after the final. Shah was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying, “Some of it [a decision on the no confidence motion] will depend on how other boards are feeling. It is fair to say that there are quite a few things to sort out at the next chief executives’ meeting.”
However, it is understood that the BCCI is unhappy with several aspects of the ICC’s functioning. “See, the job which five people used to do, in an honorary capacity, now some hundred people do, as paid professionals. If that is the case then the results should also be different,” said a BCCI official who had witnessed first-hand the chaos and confusion that engulfed the dying moments of the World Cup final. “Even in domestic cricket you can’t imagine a match being played after the streetlights have come on. How come all those professional people in the ICC could not make the right decision at the time?”
The BCCI believes that the ICC has become too bureaucratic in its functioning and that too many people are involved in taking any decision. It is the BCCI’s contention that the fiasco of the last moments of the final, where Sri Lanka were forced to bat out three overs in near-darkness, after they had initially accepted an offer of bad light and the Australians had celebrated their win, could have been easily avoided. “Had there not been so many people involved in making decisions at the time, and just one person who knew the rules properly, this situation could easily have been avoided,” said the official. “After all it is the World Cup final, the biggest stage in cricket, run by the ICC, and at the end of the day the whole of the cricket world looks bad when something like this happens.”
However, another board official dismissed the suggestion that the BCCI is, at the moment at least, looking at tabling a no-confidence motion. “If he [Shah] made those comments, then they are his individual opinion,” he said. “There has been no discussion among senior members and office bearers of the BCCI about tabling any such motion.”
While Cricinfo could not reach Shah for comment on Wednesday morning, the Times of India has quoted him as saying, “The ICC keeps reminding us that we need to be more professional in our functioning. But the entire world has seen how the World Cup final was conducted. Maybe the problem is that they [the ICC] are too professional.”
It is understood that there are several members of the Indian board who are unhappy especially with the functioning of Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the ICC, and that this latest brouhaha is centered around his behaviour and actions. For some time now there has been a growing belief in the BCCI that Speed has been autocratic in his decision-making, and has not given the Asian-bloc, which accounts for a sizeable chunk of the ICC’s financial clout, its due.
Tabling a no-confidence motion, however, would not help their cause in this case as Speed is not an elected office-bearer of the ICC but a paid employee with a fixed term. If the BCCI does decide to press for a no-confidence motion, they are sure to have the votes of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but it is difficult to see them winning over any of the other nations in support of their petition.