ICC to issue role model constitution for member boards soon

Karachi: In a bid to speed up the process of revising the constitutions of its member boards to prevent any government interference, the ICC will soon issue role model constitutions.

The ICC has apparently decided to prepare the role model constitution after some member boards had reported issues with particular reference to the existing culture and conditions in their countries. The ICC executive board last year decided that all its member boards would amend their existing constitutions to ensure that there was no government or political interference. The ICC has set June this year as the deadline for member boards to comply with its order, but have kept June, 2013 as the mandatory deadline for enforcing the new constitutions. Sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board said that the PCB had held talks with the ICC in this regard recently and informed the world body that it might not be possible for them to enforce the new constitution this year. In Pakistan the President of the country directly nominates the chairman of the PCB and his approval is also sought in appointment of other key posts. "The truth is that there has not been much progress in this direction as when the ICC took its decision it was time for Ijaz Butt to leave and Zaka Ashraf replaced him as PCB chief," one source said. "So far talks with the government on this issue have also not been decisive and the process is still on to prepare a constitution in line with the ICC directives," the source added. Interestingly, in many countries there is clear government and political interference in the cricket boards with India being a case in point. The Indian Cricket Board`s (BCCI) former president, Sharad Pawar, who now heads the ICC is a senior politician and an Union minister in the government. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe cricket boards have also in recent years seen direct interference from the government. In Sri Lanka the sports ministry has twice appointed ad-hoc interim committees to run cricket affairs in a space of two years. PTI