Pawar not in favour of John Howard as ICC vice-president

Incoming International Cricket Council (ICC) president Sharad Pawar does not want former Australian Prime Minister and cricket aficionado John Howard as his deputy in the interim.

According to Indian media reports referred to by The Australian, Pawar is to meet ICC chief David Morgan to discuss the problem over the nomination.

The president-delegate must serve a term as deputy before assuming the top job, and there are suggestions that a fresh candidate might be called in to end the impasse.

Howard is also offside with African delegates to the ICC.

Zimbabwe and South Africa are both understood to have expressed unhappiness about Howard's appointment, with the latter telling Morgan that he was ignoring the sentiments of "an overwhelming" number of countries in pushing for the appointment.

Howard's nomination was supposed to be ratified last month, but an ICC meeting did not discuss the topic because of travel problems caused by the Icelandic volcano eruption.

 It is understood it was taken off the agenda, with an eye to the issue being worked out behind the scenes.

The next ICC meeting is scheduled for Singapore in June.