Reports: Greg Barclay, Imran Khwaja set to stand against each other yet again at ICC Chairman elections

According to recent reports, Greg Barclay and Imran Khwaja will contest for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman position again. Barclay, the current ICC Chairman, has already declared his intention to run for the chair position in ICC's meeting in July. However, it is not clear yet that Khwaja, his deputy, will run for the highest position in world cricket's governing body.

As per reports by ESPNCricinfo, Khwaja will be nominated for the Chairman elections scheduled to take place in ICC's meeting in Melbourne next month. Khwaja has been a board director at ICC for a long time and has also been the interim chairman in 2020. It is also reported that the chairman election will be held immediately after the semi-final fixtures of the ongoing 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.

The deadline for filing nominations has already been closed on Tuesday (October 18) but the names of the candidates haven't been revealed yet. Barclay revealed his desire to run for a second term after the ICC's general meeting in Birmingham in July 2022. "I am available for re-election if members want," Barclay told media persons in July 2022.

It's Barclay against Khwaja again?

Barclay won the last Chairman elections in late 2020 after prevailing victorious in the voting by 11-5 to Khwaja. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) voted for Barclay which proved influential in his win. Barclay secured 10 votes and Khwaja won six in the first round during the 2020 elections. However, according to ICC regulations, a winner needs two-thirds of the votes for the chairman position.

In the second round of voting, Cricket South Africa voted for Barclay to hand him a majority. But now ICC has modified its constitution for the chairman election process, and now the candidate can win the election with a simple majority (minimum of nine votes from seventeen members). The candidate has to be proposed by the ICC Board and a second board director needs to support the nomination as well.

Once again, the BCCI's vote will be a crucial one and according to recent reports, the Indian board has decided not to nominate its own candidate for the ICC Chairman elections this time as well.