Howard's alternative way to ICC top job
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
AFP
John Howard's nomination as the next vice-president and eventual president of the ICC provokes a curious mixture of regret and hope, Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Regret stems from the overlooking of the admirable candidate put forward by New Zealand. Sir John Anderson's praises were widely sung and a more gracious neighbour might have acknowledged his obvious merits. Of the insiders he was clearly the best qualified.
Cricket Australia chose no such course. Nor did it hesitate to reach outside the game in search of a plausible alternative. As far as CA was concerned, Anderson was not the problem, the ICC was the problem. And Howard was the only possible solution.
In the Herald Sun Ron Reed writes that despite his reputation as a "cricket tragic", Howard will be seen as a political figure from outside the tent rather than a family member from inside it.
The New Zealand Herald wonders how someone with absolutely no cricket experience got the job. “How could CA not find someone more suited to the job than a politician?”
Peter English is former Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo