KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)
Emirates Cricket Board's General Secretary Mubashshir Usmani has been re-elected as Associate Member Director of cricket's world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), which held its elections on Wednesday in Scotland.
The voting, as part of the ICC Annual Conference held this year at Edinburgh, threw up ICC's fresh quota of three officials for the next two-year cycle with one being appointed to the post of ICC's Deputy Chair.
The biggest headline of the day was the shock defeat of the current deputy chief incumbent Imran Khwaja, a longstanding veteran official representing the Associate member countries which are below the top-tier countries.
Besides Usmani, Khwaja and Mahinda Vallipuram (Malaysia) were the ones seeking to be re-elected. Instead, Gurumurthy Palani (France) and Rudie van Vuuren (Namibia) picked up the most votes.
Palani surprised many by topping the poll with 35 votes, while Usmani and Van Vuuren secured 26 votes each. Khwaja finished a close fourth with 23 votes, and Vallipuram getting the least backing.
While Palani and Van Vuuren will be first-time ICC Board members, Usmani remains the most experienced with a two-year term behind him. It remains to be seen if his experience or Palani's strong influence, evident from the votes garnered in the biennial election, will win either a place on the main governing committee of the ICC.
While Khwaja was seen as a strong ally of the ICC Chairman Jay Shah, the latter's Indian compatriot Usmani has been involved in important initiatives with member boards such as Afghanistan, Ireland and Scotland – Associate members themselves in the recent past.
Closer to home, attempts to give more cricketers from the Gulf region game time in the International League Twenty20 have been seen as positive moves by Usmani in world cricket circles.