Give Kiwi Sir John Anderson a chance - Snedden

Related Links

ICC arena no place for ex-Australian PM

Relevant offers

Cricket

Clarke stars as Australia hold on vs Sri Lanka Get runs, stop theirs to win in 50-over game Teen Tom Latham boosts his bank balance Training mishap puts key bowler in doubt Injury clouds over Guptill, Oram only negative NZ batsmen dine out again but places open Gavaskar inducted into ICC Hall of Fame Roaming horse stops club cricket match Lucky break lead Bracewell down cricket path Wizards internationals out of T20 match

Martin Snedden believes world cricket will miss an enormous opportunity to solve some of its most pressing problems should it not embrace Sir John Anderson as its next president.

Snedden, the former chief executive of New Zealand Cricket and now the man charged with delivering a successful 2011 Rugby World Cup, said the question of whether the Kiwi should be appointed to the position in 2012 was an "absolute no-brainer".

"`It's not a question of whether there's a better candidate in New Zealand or Australia; the point is there's not a better candidate in the world," Snedden said.

"To pass over him at this stage, when the ICC is facing such complex and far-reaching issues, would be a total and unequivocal blunder. He should be a shoo-in."

The ICC uses a regional rotation in appointing its president, and this time it's the turn of Australia and New Zealand.

However, it was revealed last week that the two national cricket bodies have been at loggerheads for months, with Australia backing its former prime minister and cricket enthusiast John Howard.

The move has bemused even Australians, with Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter Roebuck suggesting it was as "pitiful as it was disrespectful".

"Howard's knowledge of cricket is more characterised by enthusiasm than depth or imagination," wrote Roebuck.

"Plain and simple, he is not qualified for the job. Moreover, the way in which he has been plucked from the sidelines shows CA in the worst possible light.

"Rather than recommending a retired politician, no matter how eminent, CA ought to be getting behind the splendid candidate suggested by its counterpart across the Tasman."

Another leading Australian cricket writer, Robert Craddock, described the Howard plan as "bizarre" and wrote that "deep down", Australia knew it had no candidate to match Anderson, but simply couldn't bring itself to accept the reality.

Anderson – the chairman of NZ Cricket between 1995 and 2008 and its rep on the ICC – was chief executive at the National Bank until his retirement in 2005, and is viewed as one of the country's finest trouble-shooters. He led the investigation into New Zealand Rugby League, tabled last year as the Anderson Report.

He is currently the chairman of Television New Zealand, the Capital & Coast District Health Board, the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund and the Wellington Regional Strategy Committee.

Snedden said, far from being a figurehead, the ICC president was arguably the most influential cricket official in the world.

"Sir John is a superb candidate. He has a thorough institutional knowledge of the ICC... he has outstanding judgement and is very good at working out how to break an impasse – which is a big deal at ICC level."

Snedden said it would be "almost impossible" for someone without experience in world cricket administration to simply stroll into the chairman's office and handle the duties effectively.

"There's another aspect to this, too," he said. "Australians are by nature a fairly aggressive people; I don't think that's being unfair...

"There's just a bit of a risk in the cricketing world that anyone who tries using a blunt instrument to solve a complex problem might simply end up making things worse."

- © Fairfax NZ News