DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The International Cricket Council conceded Thursday there was “confusion” in a vote for a place on one of its committees, an election that has raised allegations of vote fixing and led the international players’ association to formally request an ethics committee investigation.
Cricket’s governing body said a re-vote had to be taken in the process to choose player representatives, but it had no evidence that some countries put pressure on their captains to back Indian candidate Laxman Sivaramakrishnan for a place on the ICC’s Cricket Committee because of the influence of the powerful Indian cricket board.
“The ICC wishes to state for the record that the re-vote took place according to the determined procedure and that the ICC has seen no evidence that supports allegations now being made that captains were put under pressure by their member boards to vote for a particular individual,” the ICC said.
The ICC said the confusion in the initial vote in January resulted from it being unclear what should happen if the vote of the 10 captains was tied, or if a country had different captains for test and one-day formats.
“ICC Board considered the matter carefully, and following clarification of the process to be followed, decided that another vote should be taken,” the ICC said, explaining why captains were asked to vote more than once.
The Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations said there may have been vote fixing after Australia’s Tim May, who was one of the two current player representatives on the committee, won an initial vote and the commercially dominant BCCI wanted a re-vote taken to install its preferred candidate. The ICC said May had lost his place to Sivaramakrishnan, the former India spinner.
FICA has asked the ICC for an ethics committee investigation into the process, which it says points to poor governance, the ICC’s unwillingness to reform and the dominance of India over the ICC’s leadership and the other cricket-playing countries.
Australia’s May, a longtime player representative and the chief executive of FICA, was reported in Australia as condemning the “cancer” at the ICC after he lost his place on the committee.
The ICC’s explanation on Thursday also did not explain why South Africa test captain Graeme Smith was asked to vote three times in the election, according to South Africa’s top player representative.
The ICC acknowledged a written request from FICA to refer the matter to its ethics officer and said it was considering the request.