Three in race for Associate CEC election

Dr Vignaesh Shankaran of Germany, Sumod Damodar from Botswana, and Richard Done of Papua New Guinea will contest for the  (CEC) position held by the International Cricket Council (ICC). In July, UAE's Mubasir Usmani was elected to the ICC Board as Associate Nation Director. With his departure, the coveted position is up for grabs with three contestants vying for the job.

Damodar and Done are likely to have an edge going into the election, who both fell one vote short in last year's election. Damodar lost to Usmani after holding the position in CEC for three terms. He was also the chair of the African Cricket Association. Speaking of Done, the veteran is disappointed as ICC has changed the World Cup qualification pathway, merging the East Asia Pacific and Asia region for the purpose of the qualification tournament. This effectively increases the competition for the East Asia Pacific teams by pitting them up against stronger Asian teams.

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"The EAP region as a whole were pretty disappointed. It sort of looks at us as a region and says, 'well, you know, you don't deserve a spot'. Even though we are ranked 20 currently and we're 19 going into that event and there are 20 teams in the World Cup. So, you know, on rankings alone, we probably deserve a place. Their argument is that the region is a lot weaker and it should be challenging that stronger region to earn a spot,” Done, the CEO of PNG cricket, said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

The CEC election to be held over a week

The term of CEC started in 2023 and there are two years left in the term. The elections will be held from September 12 and 18 and the elected member will have two years of hold on the seat. Speaking of the members of CEC, Raspal Bajwa, former president of Cricket Canada, and Umair Butt, the head of Denmark Cricket are the members along with three Associate nation representatives.