Pawar opts out of short-term presidency

India's board president, Sharad Pawar, has said he will not be seeking to step in as Percy Sonn's short-term successor at the ICC, adding that the post should be filled by a fellow South African at least until Sonn's two-year tenure expires at the end of 2009.

Pawar vied for the ICC presidency with the ECB's David Morgan in March, only for the vote to be split 3-3 - a result that led to Sonn being asked to stay on for an extra year. But his death last week, after complications following a colon operation in Cape Town, has created a power vacuum in the run-in to next month's executive meeting at Lord's.

According to PTI, the Asian Cricket Council has decided to press for an early election and has once again backed Pawar's candidacy. But the man himself is not tempted to rush into the top job.

"Sonn had a tenure of two years and since it was not completed, we feel another South African office-bearer should get the post," he told NDTV. "This is because Sonn's tenure belonged to his country. The ICC president's seat did not come to BCCI and if someone other than South Africa claims it, it is wrong."

But regardless of Pawar's remarks, which will doubtless win over the African vote that went against him at the last presidency election, the likeliest candidate to fill the vacuum on a short-term assignment is Sir John Anderson of New Zealand.

"There has been talk of Malaysia's Prince Tunku Imran being considered as acting president," said an official at the Pakistan Cricket Board, "but the ICC history is that the members always back a representative of a full member country for any prime posting, not anyone from an associate country."