Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas takes over as ICC President

Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas assumed the role of the International Cricket Council President on day three of the ICC Annual Conference week in Barbados on Wednesday.

The ICC has been without a president since April when Mustafa Kamal, the former president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, resigned from the largely honory position in a protest over constitutional changes to the organization and the role of the president last year.

For his part, Zaheer began his one-year term and thanked the ICC Board and the Full Council for confirming his nomination.

“I feel truly honoured and humbled to be appointed as the President of the governing body of our great game,” said Abbas in a statement to the conference.

“This is the sport which has given us friendship, respect, recognition and an opportunity to serve our countries in different capacities. Personally speaking, it has given me more than I can ever possibly repay.

“I am thankful to all of you for the support and confidence placed in me by confirming my nomination. I am also grateful to the PCB for proposing my candidacy as the ICC President. I assure you all that I will stand shoulder to shoulder with all the ICC Members as we continue to strive to inspire more and more people to fall in love with the game we cherish.”

ICC Chairman Narayanaswami Srinivasan congratulated Zaheer on his appointment and made mention of the right-handed batsman’s record of 108 first-class hundreds and more than 7,500 international runs.

“Zaheer is clearly an iconic cricketer who always played the game with skill, flair and in the true spirit. He is a worthy ambassador of our great game,” he said.

According to the ICC’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, the President must be “an iconic former international cricketer of high standing and repute (unless truly exceptional circumstances mean that nobody so qualified is available)”.

Zaheer, 67, played 78 Tests and 62 ODIs from 1969 to 1985 in which he scored 5,062 and 2,572 runs, respectively. He also played in the 1975, 1979 and 1983 ICC Cricket World Cups and captained Pakistan in 14 Tests and 13 ODIs. With 108 centuries, Zaheer is the only Asian batsman to score a century of first-class centuries as he finished his 22-year career with 34,843 runs.

Zaheer was also an ICC match referee in the 1993 series between Sri Lanka and the West Indies in Sri Lanka.

In other business, the ICC Council approved the admission of the Serbia Cricket Federation (SCF) as the 58th Affiliate Member of the ICC and also agreed to suspend the Affiliate Memberships of Morocco and Turkey, while Brunei was removed as an Affiliate Member.

The ICC has 105 members.