The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman will not join the race for the Independent Chair in the International Cricket Council. Mani, who is also heading the powerful Financial and Commercial Affairs committee of the ICC, has turned down the request by a group of ICC Board members.
As reported by SportzFront earlier, some ICC Board members had approached the PCB chairman to file his nomination for the elite office of governance for world cricket.
“It is true that I will not be contesting the election. I have announced it in the media also. I was never interested. The news actually came from India. I was approached by a few to contest and I have said I am not interested,” Mani has confirmed, while adding that he was not sure about India’s candidature.
Mani, who had taken reigns of the PCB after being influenced by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, was being persuaded by some of the Test-playing nations to return to the ICC, where he had been a past president from 2003 to 2006.
Mani’s refusal to accept the suggestion would reduce the race for Shashank Manohar’s successor between India and England. England and Wales Cricket Board Chairman Colin Graves and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly will be two likely contenders for the ICC Independent Chair.
The ICC has not yet announced the process for the election process of the Independent chair. Manohar’s second tenure in the ICC Chairman’s office come to an end in July.
The BCCI, however, has so far not disclosed its cards about Ganguly’s candidature for the esteem ICC post.