The ICC’s search for a new CEO brought back memories of BCCI’s faux pas during its early days coach-hunting and the embarrassment over Graham Ford issue. About a fortnight after ICC zeroed in on South African Imtiaz Patel as its next CEO, the SuperSport International top man has rejected the offer.

But ICC insists that they hadn’t jumped the gun in naming the replacement for their long-serving CEO Malcolm Speed.

Brian Murgatroyd, ICC Manager for media and communications, informed The Indian Express that Patel was kept in the loop over the appointment. “Permission was taken to announce the name beforehand. David Morgan (ICC’s president elect) had called Imtiaz before the announcement was made,” Murgatroyd said today.

But yesterday Patel called Morgan to inform that he no longer was interested to move to Dubai — ICC’s headquarters. Morgan has expressed his disappointment over Patel’s change of mind. “We are obviously disappointed that Imtiaz has chosen to withdraw his interest, having regarded him highly,” said Morgan in an ICC release.

This unexpected turn of events means ICC’s recruitment committee — consisting of ICC president Ray Mali, Creagh O’Connor, and vice president Sharad Pawar — will now reconvene to come up with a fresh name.

Lorgat, Richardson candidates?

Haroon Lorgat, the former convenor of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) selection committee, has emerged as a strong candidate for the post along with South African — Dave Richardson, the former wicket-keeper, and currently the ICC’s general manager reports Cricinfo.

But can former BCCI president IS Bindra, who was involved in a close race with Patel for the top post, be named? Though, officially, there is no word on it but the is Bindra expected to stick to being ICC’s Principal Advisor, a new post that was created for him after Patel was unanimously chosen as the CEO at ICC’s board meeting on March 18. “At present, I am happy working at the post that I am holding,” Bindra said.

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