ICC president quits over World Cup controversy

MUSTAFA Kamal resigned as president of the International Cricket Council yesterday, saying he had been prevented from presenting the World Cup trophy after claiming one of the matches was fixed.

Kamal, a Bangladeshi national, said he had been ordered to apologise for the incendiary claim that his country’s World Cup quarterfinal defeat to India was pre-arranged.

He said after the match last month that there was no quality in the umpiring, casting a shadow over an otherwise successful tournament and earning a sharp rebuke from ICC chief executive David Richardson.

He later complained he had been deprived of his “right” as ICC president to present the trophy to winners Australia.

“I resign right at this moment. I am no longer ICC president,” Kamal said at Dhaka’s airport, where he arrived from Singapore yesterday.

“The main reason . . . is I can’t work with those who can act unconstitutionally and unlawfully.”

An ICC spokesman said the world body had not received any information about Kamal’s resignation, refusing to comment further.

A spokesman for Kamal said he had sent a resignation letter to Richardson.

– AFP