ICC Wanted N. Srinivasan to Present World Cup, not Mustafa Kamal
DHAKA: International Cricket Council sources have told NDTV that it was the decision of its Executive Board to let ICC chairman N. Srinivasan present the World Cup to the victorious Australian team after they beat New Zealand by seven wickets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.As per convention, the trophy is presented by the council’s president.
Mustafa Kamal resigned as the president of the ICC on Wednesday. Kamal said he quit after being denied the right as ICC president to award the World Cup trophy to the winning team. Sources said the decision to let Srinivasan do the honours was taken after Kamal had offended the ICC for making controversial remarks after Bangladesh lost their World Cup quarterfinal against India. Kamal slammed the umpires for a decision that went against the Bangladeshis.
ICC sources said the Executive Board had already decided to remove Kamal for his remarks which were not befitting for a president of the apex body of the cricket in the world. ICC will discuss Kamal’s resignation in two weeks.Srinivasan’s handing over the trophy to Australia prompted Kamal to launch a scathing attack on the Indian and the ICC top brass whom he termed “ugly people”.
“I’m again requesting — these type of people should be away from cricket, otherwise cricket will be spoilt, cricket will not move forward,” Kamal told reporters in Dhaka.”My earnest request to ICC is to revisit those things. I’m sure people will find out why I have resigned and they will unearth the truth — who are these people, what are they doing and how they are running ICC,” he added.
The governing body has confirmed Kamal’s resignation. The ICC will consider a new president in its next meeting in Dubai on April 15-16.The ICC had criticised Kamal for his outburst last month against a controversial decision in the World Cup quarter-final match between India and Bangladesh.
India opener Rohit Sharma was caught in the deep and umpire Aleem Dar deemed it was an above waist-height no-ball even if replays contradicted his opinion.After India won the match, Kamal demanded the governing body looked into the dismissal while ICC termed his outburst as “very unfortunate”.