Zimbabwe cricket officials have been successful in their bid to torpedo the nomination of former Australian Prime Minister John Howard to become vice-president of the International Cricket Council. At a meeting in Singapore the governing body’s executive board rejected his nomination after conceding he “did not have sufficient support” from the wider board.
Howard was an outspoken critic of Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe during his time as Australian Prime Minister and led calls for a cricketing boycott of the country. As such, his candidacy was strongly opposed by Zimbabwean officials, who were able to muster support from neighbouring South Africa and, later, the influential Asian block.
Howard made a last-ditch attempt to build bridges with Zimbabwe Cricket last week, visiting the country for a clear-the-air summit with ZC managing director Ozias Bvute. Bvute spoke well of their meeting, describing it as “friendly, constructive and frank”, but it was clearly not enough to swing the consensus in Howard’s favour and his candidacy eventually fell by the wayside without so much as a vote being taken.
Under the terms of the ICC’s regional rotation nomination process, the boards of Australia and New Zealand have now been asked to submit a new candidate by August 31.
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