‘Speed issue mars ICC credibility’

“I’m very disappointed with the way Malcolm has been treated. He has served the ICC with loyalty and a huge amount of distinction and I would have expected that if there were differences they could have been handled privately,” Mani told The Daily Telegraph.

“The way the board has handled this has been disgraceful. If they do not pull their act together they will lose credibility,” he added.

Mani said instead of tackling the differences that have cropped up in the executive board head on, the ICC chose the easy way out by asking Speed to go on a paid leave, two months before the end of his tenure. “Having known Malcolm personally I know how he has taken the ICC to a much higher level (compared to when he joined),” said Mani.

Mani, who served as ICC president from 2003 to 2006, said the ICC should be transparent in its handling of the game and make public the controversial audit report on financial irregularities in the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) that apparently caused the “breakdown” between Speed and ICC president Ray Mali.

“The ICC must always be transparent. Ideally the... report should have been made public. Nothing ever stays private,” he said.