Mustafa Kamal, the president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), will take over as the ICC’s vice-president and later president, remaining a ceremonial part of the administration in keeping with the restructuring that is set to take place
Mohammad Isam09-Oct-2012Mustafa Kamal, the president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), will take over as the ICC’s vice-president and later president, remaining a ceremonial part of the administration in keeping with the restructuring that is set to take place over the next two years. The ICC’s executive board accepted his nomination, made jointly by the BCB and the Pakistan Cricket Board at the start of its meeting in Colombo on Tuesday.Kamal will now take over as the vice-president for 2012-14 and then succeed Alan Isaac as president for 2014-15 over a 12-month period. This means that Kamal will have to immediately stand down as president of his home board, with the BCB’s elections due sometime in late November.Kamal’s elevation to the post of vice-president was delayed by three months as it was being debated whether the post of vice-president remained relevant in the light of the restructuring. The ICC formally changed its administrative structures at its annual conference in June, which has made way for the creation of a post of a chairman, who will have greater executive powers and head the board; the post of president will subsequently become a largely ceremonial one, with a one-year term, and the post of vice-president will be abolished. The ICC will appoint its first chairman at the end of Isaac’s term in 2014, meaning Kamal would be its first ceremonial president.After the ICC’s June conference, it was stated that Kamal would have to present his case that the vice-presidency was indeed still relevant and he is known to have made a 15-minute presentation before the board on Tuesday, underlining his philosophies and plans for the two-year position. He said later he was thankful to the ICC, BCB and PCB for the honour of his nomination and to the “160 million people of Bangladesh” for their support. “I will do what’s necessary for the betterment of world cricket,” he said.Kamal will in effect be the last ICC vice-president. After his presidency term ends, the ceremonial president will an ‘ideal candidate’, and not picked via zonal nominations as is currently the case. This is, the fourth time since 1996 that the ICC has amended its method of appointing a president and the role he plays.The BCB could not immediately confirm who would replace Kamal until their elections in November. A source in the board told ESPNcricinfo that either the government will appoint a successor (Kamal himself was a government-appointed BCB president) or the senior vice-president, Mahbubul Anam, may be slotted into the president’s role for the interim.A proposed BCB constitutional amendment, which has been sent to the National Sports Council for ratification, states that the next BCB president is to be elected democratically. The most widely discussed successors to Kamal’s post at the moment are Saber Hossain Chowdhury (a former BCB president) and Nazmul Hasan (the son of the country’s president Zillur Rahman) who is the chairman of one of the leading Bangladesh cricket clubs, Abahani Cricket.
