Muttaih Muralitharan may have forgiven former Australian Prime Minister John Howard for calling him a chucker in 2004, but it doesn't seem like all his fellow Sri Lankans have done so

Sri Lanka not to back former Aussie PM John Howard

Muttaih Muralitharan may have forgiven former Australian Prime Minister John Howard for calling him a chucker in 2004, but it doesn't seem like all his fellow Sri Lankans have done so. Yesterday, Sri Lanka declared that they would not be supporting Howard's nomination for the International Cricket Council's vice-presidency, Cricinfo reported.

On the eve of Sri Lanka's tour of Australia in 2004, Howard as prime minister, had twice made comments over the suspect bowling action of Muralitharan -- once at a function organised by his Liberal Party, and then, several days later, on a radio programme. Murali eventually skipped the series and Howard attracted a lot of criticism in Sri Lanka.

When news of Howard's nomination became public last March, Murali said he had forgiven the Aussie for his comments but added that, should his nomination succeed, he would have to convince the sub-continent of his intentions.

Speaking to Cricinfo, Sri Lanka Cricket's interim committee chairman Somachandra de Silva said: "On principle it is the wrong thing to do to bring someone from outside for the vice-presidency," de Silva said. "We would support any of the directors from Australia and New Zealand who are representatives of the ICC, but not anyone from outside."

Howard needs seven votes from the 10 Test-playing countries to be accepted and, with three countries already opposing him, one more negative vote would rule him out.

And, India's history of voting in solidarity with fellow "non-white" nations does not bode well for Howard.
There is now a strong possibility that the choice will be blocked for the first time in ICC history. Incoming president and Indian administrator Sharad Pawar is also believed to be increasingly edgy about partnering with such a high profile figure.

"Pawar, who takes over next month, doesn't really want another politician to be his No 2... That, too, somebody with Howard's profile... The turn of events suits him just fine," a source close to Pawar, said.

Speaking to an Australian news agency, the ICC's chief executive Haroon Lorgat did not deny the fractious nature of backroom discussions. "It (opposition to Howard's nomination) is speculative at this moment.

"We haven't yet faced such a scenario; it has not been blocked as yet, nor even considered."

On the subject of what would happen if Howard's nomination was rejected, Lorgat said: "We will probably go back and ask (the same region) for another nomination. But that has never happened. Courtesy: cricinfo

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