Howard praises India, pushes presidency bid

Former Australian prime minister John Howard has refused to stand aside as CA's candidate for the next ICC presidency.

Former Australian prime minister John Howard has lauded India but refused to stand aside as Cricket Australia’s (CA) candidate for the next Interntational Cricket Council (ICC) presidency despite his application being recently rebuffed.

Howard told Australian television station Channel Nine that Indians should be applauded for their love of cricket but they should be careful not to be seen to dominate the administration of the sport.

“There is one part of the world where a sport at the present time remains transcendent over soccer and that is the Indian subcontinent,” he said.

“I think it is very important we understand there’s got to be a fair sharing of responsibilities and no one part of the world, no one country, should dominate.”

Committed

Howard has also questioned the validity of rejecting his bid. “[Domination] is why the ICC put in place their rotation system and that’s one of the issues CA has got to take into account when it responds to what has happened.”

Howard has also refused to withdraw from the nomination process.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2010.