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MUMBAI:
The Board of the International Cricket Council
(ICC) has selected South African Imtiaz Patel as its preferred
candidate for the post of ICC Chief Executive.
At
a meeting in Dubai , the Board approved the recommendation
of the four-person sub-committee tasked with finding a replacement
for Malcolm Speed, who has been ICC CEO since 2001.
Speed
will step down at the ICC’s annual conference at the
end of June and, subject to details being worked out Patel
will be invited to take over at the same meeting for an initial
period of three years.
Speaking
after the conclusion of day one of the two-day meeting, ICC
president Ray Mali said, “We are delighted that Imtiaz
is the Board’s choice for the post of next ICC Chief
Executive. I have no doubt that if he accepts the position
he will do a great job.”
Patel
is currently chief executive of SuperSport International in
his native South Africa and has previously held directorships
of the United Cricket Board of South Africa as well as other
sports organisations including SuperSport United soccer club
in Pretoria and Sharks Rugby in Kwazulu Natal.
ICC
president-elect David Morgan , who will take over from Mali
at the annual conference said, “I am pleased that the
ICC Board has approved this appointment. We are now negotiating
the details of Mr.Patel’s engagement as our chief executive.
In anticipation of an early completion to that negotiation,
I do look forward to working closely with him during my presidency.
“These
are exciting and busy times for world cricket and I know that
Mr Patel will bring his wide range of skills and broad knowledge
of the game to the table in a way that will benefit cricket
as a whole.
It
was encouraging to see that the Board endorsed the sub-committee’s
recommendation. Mr Patel is an outstanding candidate. Through
his work at SuperSport he has been leading a television channel
that has been at the forefront of cricket broadcasting for
some considerable time.
“This
has been a rigorous selection process and I am satisfied that
we have exhausted every avenue to find the best person for
the job. We are now in the process of negotiating the details
with Mr Patel before he can be officially appointed.”
The
ICC has been engaged in an extensive selection process to
find the next chief executive. Global recruitment firm Egon
Zehnder International was appointed to conduct the initial
stages of the process and then it presented a short-list of
candidates to the sub-committee.
The
sub-committee, which consisted of Mali, Morgan, Sharad Pawar
and Creagh O’Connor, with Dr Nasim Ashraf present as
a non-voting observer, heard a presentation from Egon Zehnder
International and then met to decide upon its favoured candidate.
The sub-committee made its recommendation to the Board and
the candidature of Patel was approved.
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