ICC's rejection of John Howard's bid for Presidency has "gutted" Cricket Australia, which says the snub is insulting and would affect its relationship with the governing body.
ICC's rejection of John Howard's bid for Presidency has "gutted" Cricket Australia, which says the snub is insulting and would affect its relationship with the governing body.
Although he refused to blame India for Howard's rejection, CA chairman Jack Clarke said the country's financial clout in the ICC was not ideal.
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"In any business model where a company has 75 per cent of the income, it's not an ideal model," he said.
"But that is not India's fault they do that ... it's a powerful bloc but it's a reality of life," he was quoted as saying by 'Fox Sports'.
Howard's candidacy was rejected after the powerful Afro-Asian bloc refused to endorse him and Clarke said both Australia and New Zealand, who jointly nominated Howard, were frustrated.
"What the genesis ... was, we don't know, that is one of the frustrating things apart from not having any reasons," Clarke said from Singapore where the ICC meeting was held.
"You hope it doesn't affect the relationship but it obviously puts a block there for a while and makes you wary." Gutted and incredibly disappointed that a man of John Howard's stature has been knocked off for this job," he said.
"If you keep having processes that don't work, or are not allowed to work, I am not too sure where they go from there."
Had Howard been elected, he would have succeeded former BCCI chief Sharad Pawar as ICC President in 2012.
Following his rejection, the ICC has asked Australia and New Zealand to nominate a new candidate by the end of August. New Zealand Cricket chairman Alan Isaac said he was baffled by the rejection.
"We have been unable to get a reason for the lack of support for our nomination and it's just not acceptable," Isaac said from Singapore. "When you go through a process like we have been through, the most rigorous process that two countries could go through to get the best candidate, John wasn't putting his hand up for this job, he was asked by cricket," added Clarke.
"When you put up someone ... as eminent as John, I don't think embarrassed is strong enough actually, I'm just gutted.
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