Imran Khwaja’s 2018 appointment in ICC raises questions

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is in a mess, and it doesn’t just have to do with their inability to put an election protocol in place to appoint a new chairperson after the exit of Shashank Manohar. This mess stems from the lack of understanding as to how did the governing body’s deputy chairman Imran Khwaja – appointed interim-chairman after Manohar’s exit – get into the ICC administration in 2018.
Khwaja’s name is listed on the ICC website as the director from Singapore Cricket Association (SCA) even as ICC has clarified to TOI that: “Khwaja was previously a member of the SCA”.
Members say that the ICC can’t justify that the website hasn’t been updated. “They have made changes to the structure after Manohar resigned,” they add.
Under the ICC Constitution, three individuals are to be elected as directors from the associate member countries.
The constitution has a further stipulation in that at least one of them has to represent an associate member in the top 20 ranking. In other words, an elected associate member director has to represent a country. If so, then which board did Khwaja represent when the ICC evaluated the satisfaction of this criteria in 2018?
Khwaja, a representative of SCA in 2016, did not have the sanction of SCA from 2017 onwards to represent them. Then, on whose representation was he part of the ICC board in 2018 when he contested the elections of the associate members and won?
“Which home board gave the endorsement, because it wasn’t Singapore?” members ask.

ICC insists that Khwaja didn’t need to have a representation because to be elected as deputy chairman, an “individual must be a current / former director”.
However, the ICC’s own constitution says something else.
Article 3.2(C) of the ICC’s rules and regulations says: The board of directors shall appoint a current director to be deputy chairman of the ICC for the remaining duration of the term in accordance with a process that is agreed by the board of directors.
Further, article 4.2(C) says: The voting associate members together with the regional representatives shall be titled to elect three individuals who meet the director eligibility criteria as members of the board of directors and each individual shall be a director.
TOI wrote to ICC asking to point out a specific clause that says the director being appointed to be deputy chairman/associate representative can be either current or former. There has been no response.
TOI sent SCA president Mahmood Gaznavi an email on Khwaja and he replied: “Khwaja has not represented SCA at the ICC after 2016 and has not sought any permission and/or sanction from the SCA on the same”. Calls and messages to Khwaja remained unanswered.
In 2018, when Khwaja was elected an associate member director, he had to be a representative of an associate member or endorsed by that board.
Further, the chairman of the associate member countries was chosen subsequent to the election and decided from among the three. Once he accepts the post of chairman, he then resigns from the home board. If so, then which home board did Khwaja resign from?
Prior to Manohar taking over as chairman in 2016, ICC rules stipulated that “to be eligible to be elected as associate member representative, an individual must be a current director”