Cricket: Mustafa Kamal’s resignation won’t matter to the ICC

Another day, another drama in cricket. This time, it involves the ICC president, Mustafa Kamal, who announced on Wednesday that he would be resigning from his post. This decision came on the back of Kamal saying he had been prevented from presenting the Cricket World Cup trophy after claiming one of the matches was fixed.

Kamal, who is from Bangladesh, said that he had been ordered to apologise after suggesting that the result in the World Cup quarterfinal, where Bangladesh faced India, had been “pre-arranged”. He took particular issue with the umpiring in the match and said, at the time, that there was “no quality in the umpiring”. It earned him a rebuke from the ICC chief executive, David Richardson.

One issue which seemingly irked Kamal was when Rohit Sharma was out, but earned a reprieve after the umpires had ruled that the delivery which dismissed him was a no ball due to height. Bangladesh had used all of their reviews, so could not send the decision upstairs. The height of the ball could only be checked by the third ump if Rohit had been given out. Under ICC protocols, no-ball checks can only be done by the third ump if there has been a dismissal. When he was told to apologise or withdraw his comments, he refused, but would not explain in detail why he made such comments.

Later during the tournament, he said that he was deprived of his "right" as ICC president to present the trophy to the winners, Australia. India's Narayanaswami Srinivasan, who took over as ICC chairperson last year, handed over the trophy and was earlier booed by the crowd. Kamal alleged that he was told that he could not give out the World Cup trophy and said that the meeting that led to this was “unconstitutional”. He said it was only the president who had the power to summon such a gathering.

"I resign right at this moment. I am no longer ICC president," Kamal told reporters at the airport in Dhaka, where he arrived from Singapore on Wednesday.

"The main reason for my resignation is that I can't work with those who can act unconstitutionally and unlawfully."

At the time of writing, the ICC said that they were yet to receive any formal resignation and would not comment any further.

While his outrage is endearing and even, to an extent, warranted, his throwing his toys out of the cot will mean little, if anything, to the ICC. When Srinivasan took over as chairman, the ICC presidential role effectively became more of a ceremonial role.

That considered, it’s highly unlikely that his resignation will shake the upper echelons of the ICC. Everyone is already aware of how inadequate the governance of the ICC is. It’s no great shock that the ICC are incapable of following protocol or that the power sits heavily in favour of an elite few. In other contexts, such a resignation and such heavy accusations might cause a watershed moment, but in this instance, it’s likely to be welcomed by the powers that be.

Kamal has already threatened to reveal “mischievous things” about the sport's governing body, but so far nothing has come of this. “I’m again requesting that these type of people should be away from cricket, otherwise cricket will be spoilt, cricket will not move forward,” Kamal said in Dhaka. “My earnest request to ICC is to revisit those things. I’m sure people will find out why I have resigned and [that] they will unearth the truth – who these people are, what they are doing and how they are running ICC.”

Considering that Bangladesh was one of the countries who voted for the newly proposed legislation that technically put India, Australia and England in charge of world cricket, Kamal’s line of questioning seems somewhat contrived. If he does indeed have any startling revelations, it is imperative that Kamal acts on them instead of just making threats. World cricket’s governance is in desperate need of an overhaul and anyone who has even an inkling of evidence that could change it should make this evidence public. Without doing that, they are no better than the men in charge of the game. DM

Photo: Mustafa Kamal (R), the President of the Bangladesh Cricket Board talks with journalists during a joint press conference in National Cricket Academy Lahore, Pakistan, 04 March 2012. EPA/RAHAT DAR