The International Cricket Council (ICC) will be headed up by a South African within the next four months.
Imtiaz Patel, CEO of SuperSport, has been offered the position of CEO at the ICC and now it’s just a matter of negotiating terms before he takes over the reigns from current CEO Malcolm Speed in early July.
Patel, a former teacher, was one of the lead contenders for cricket’s hot seat all along, and managed finally to edge out former head of Indian cricket IS Bindra for the position.
The current president of the ICC, Ray Mali, and president-elect David Morgan made the announcement in Dubai on Sunday. Morgan said that an initial group of 50 very strong candidates had been picked before this group was narrowed down to a longlist of 12.
Only six candidates were finally interviewed by the sub-committee tasked with finding a new CEO, comprising Mali, vice-president Morgan, BCCI chief Sharad Pawar (who will head the ICC from 2010) and Cricket Australia chairperson Creagh O’Connor.
”We met again on Saturday, and we became unanimous in view that the best of the candidates was Mr Imtiaz Patel from South Africa, and today we put his name forward to the executive board and they have approved the appointment,” said Morgan.
Mali pointed to Patel’s impressive achievements while working with the then United Cricket Board of South Africa, first as development director and later as director of professional cricket. ”Without any doubt, the ICC has appointed somebody who will be able to take the organisation to the next level,” he said.
”I have known him for a number of years now and whatever Imtiaz touches, he makes sure that he succeeds,” added Mali, also making mention of Patel’s success in introducing cricket to Soweto in the early 1990s.
”I believe we have somebody who can unify people. South Africa was a divided nation, but he managed to play an important role with Ali Bacher in unifying the different boards,” said Mali.
Patel has been offered an initial contract of three years. ”Having only been given the approval from the executive board this afternoon, we now still have to negotiate the terms of engagement with Mr Patel,” explained Morgan.
”He clearly was a very strong candidate from the beginning. He has had a distinguished career in South African cricket. He moved away from that and into the broadcasting business, and eventually progressed to being the CEO of SuperSport,” said Morgan.
The president-elect added that despite reports to the contrary, Patel’s main competition for the post, Bindra, was not disregarded because of his age.
”We would have had to have had certain clearances both within the ICC and in terms of the law in the United Arab Emirates in order to appoint someone in excess of 60 years of age, but we would have pursued those avenues if Mr Bindra had been the preferred candidate,” he said. — Sapa