Re: Speed could face no-confidence motion
Pakistan to support possible Indian move against Speed](The News International: Latest News Breaking, World, Entertainment, Royal News)
By Khalid Hussain
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.