Cricket South Africa asked to nominate Acting President of ICC

The ICC Board has unanimously approved a recommendation for Cricket South Africa to nominate an Acting President following the death of Percy Sonn last month.

The nominee, once approved, will assume the role of Acting President until the ICC's annual conference of 2008.

The Governance Review Committee (GRC), following its meeting in Cape Town on Friday 1 June, made the recommendation and it has been unanimously approved by the ICC Board.

The GRC, made up of Cricket Australia's chairman Creagh O'Connor (chairman of the GRC), Peter Chingoka (chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket), HRH Tunku Imran (president of Malaysian Cricket Association and an Associate Member representative on the ICC Board) and Malcolm Speed (ICC Chief Executive) reviewed both the current ICC Constitution (in place since June 2005) and the one under which Percy Sonn was nominated as ICC President.

In the previous Memorandum and Articles of Association of the ICC it said: "In the event that the President shall, for any reason, be unable to fulfill or continue to fulfill his duties, the most recent Nominating Member to be selected in accordance with this Article shall nominate a person as Acting President..."

In recognition of this Article and following formal correspondence from CSA, New Zealand Cricket, Sri Lanka Cricket and the Board of Control for Cricket in India along the same lines, the GRC formally proposed by circular resolution that the ICC Board should invite CSA to nominate a person to be appointed as Acting President to the end of Percy Sonn's original two-year term, which was up to the Annual Conference of 2008.

The ICC Board will now wait for CSA to makes its nomination. Once the nomination is received, it will go back before the Board for final approval.

The Acting President will exercise all the powers and duties of the President while in office and his taking the role does not prejudice his chances of being appointed ICC President in the future.

ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said: "I am delighted the ICC Board has unanimously endorsed the Governance Review Committee's decision to ask Cricket South Africa to nominate the Acting President.

"It is appropriate that CSA should make this nomination and I have no doubt that it will put forward a worthy successor to Percy Sonn, who served the ICC so well during his time in office."