Najam Sethi pulls out from race for ICC presidency

Najam Sethi has withdrawn his candidature for the ICC presidency, allowing Pakistan Cricket Board to nominate an ex-cricketer instead. He however continues to hold the PCB office as head of powerful executive committee. The PCB has acknowledged Sethi's decision.

Interestingly, the ICC had asked the PCB to nominate an ex-cricketer last year in September but Pakistan came up with Sethi's name.

Sethi, the former chairman of the PCB, was slated to take over from Mustafa Kamal as the ICC president for a period of 12 months from July 1. The ICC after its April board meeting said that they would consider the appointment of Najam Sethi as ICC president during its meeting in Barbados at the end of June. Sethi was also briefed about the role of the ICC president and explained the responsibilities six months ago.

With exactly a month to go for the appointment, Sethi made the surprising move. In April, he had offered himself as the interim president after Kamal resigned and was willing to fill in for two months before taking a full-fledged role from July.

Sethi's decision came after the ICC in its previous board meeting, it is understood, discussed encouraging former cricketers for the post from 2016 after what would have been Sethi's one-year term. The post of the ICC president is merely a ceremonial and ambassadorial one and there was a sense prevailing after Kamal's fall out that this post should be a held by an iconic cricketer for the image and popularity of the game. Sethi, a senior journalist and former caretaker chief minister of Punjab, is a direct political appointee from the Prime Minister in the PCB.

"I am writing to thank you and the other members of the ICC for nominating me as ICC President for 2015-16. It is a great honour that I shall always cherish," Sethi wrote to the ICC. "However, since the ICC announcement that from next year the post of the ICC president will be open only to iconic Test cricketers nominated by member Boards, I have increasingly felt that it is only fitting that this rule should be implemented straightaway so that one of Pakistan's great iconic cricketers should be so honoured.

"Under the circumstances, I am withdrawing my nomination to ICC Presidency with immediate effect and requesting the Board of Governors of the Pakistan Cricket Board to nominate an great Pakistani ex-Test cricketer in my place."

Kamal's resignation from the position came after a public falling out with the ICC stemming from the India-Bangladesh quarter-final at the World Cup, when he had strongly criticised the umpires - even questioning their motives - over a dubious no-ball call that went against Bangladesh. Kamal had also protested after he was passed over for the duty of handing out the trophy to the World Cup winners, a decision he said went against his right as ICC president.