Morgan, Pawar back Howard's nomination

Amidst strong opposition from the African bloc, John Howard's ambition to become ICC president got a boost on Friday with President-elect Sharad Pawar backing the process of his nomination.

Pawar and current president David Morgan issued a joint statement, saying they support the process for nominating the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the ICC, agreed some two years ago.

Cricket Boards of South Africa and Zimbabwe opposed Howard's nomination and Sri Lanka on Thursday joined them saying they do not favour a person from outside the game for the top post.

Howard, a former Australian premier, needs at least seven votes in the ICC Board to become president in 2012 and one more negative vote is enough to shatter his dream.

"The Board of the ICC had debated and approved the current nomination process for the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency. The unanimous decision of the Board at the time was that the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency should be decided on a rotational basis," Pawar and Morgan said in the joint statement.

"The ICC had decided that the next Vice-President would be nominated by Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket. Those two boards have been through a very thorough and robust selection process to suggest a candidate and now the ICC Board has to consider and decide on this nomination," it added.

Pawar expressed hope of a unanimous decision on the issue.

"I am sure we can reach a decision which will be unanimously supported by the ICC Board," he said.