Mustafa Kamal

Calcutta: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is moving towards amending its constitution and reducing the president to a figurehead. Instead, from 2014, the chairman (a post being revived) will have the maximum powers.

According to a top source of The Telegraph, who attended the two-day Executive Board meeting in Kuala Lumpur, which concluded on Wednesday, the change is “firmly on track.”

While the president is going to be in office for a year, the chairman’s term will be for two years. The presidency is going to be rotated; the chairman will be nominated by the Executive Board.

The president, strangely, won’t have a seat on the Executive Board.

For the record, the ICC’s media release merely said: “The Board also agreed to continue the fruitful informal discussions surrounding the Independent Governance Review and the role of the ICC...”

Till early 1997, when Jagmohan Dalmiya became the first president, the chairman used to head the ICC.

Now, that post is all set to be back.

Interestingly, a decision on Bangladesh’s A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal becoming the next vice-president has been put on hold till the Executive Board’s meeting in Colombo, during/immediately after the September 18-October 7 World T20.

The vice-president’s post will, therefore, be vacant when New Zealander Alan Isaac succeeds Sharad Pawar on Thursday.

If Kamal gets the nod later this year, then he’ll become the first president of the ICC (in 2014) with no powers.

Footnote: Only India continued to oppose the mandatory use of the DRS, but “nobody” in the Executive Board sought a vote.

Obviously, nobody wanted to risk ‘sanctions’.