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Imran Khawaja, the long-time deputy chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), faced defeat in the election of Associate Member Directors during the organization’s annual conference on Wednesday.

In this election, Gurumurthy Palani of France was leading with 35 votes, while Mubashir Usmani (UAE) and Rudy Van Vuuren (Namibia) got 26-26 votes. In this way he captured three seats available for a two-year term in the powerful 17-member ICC Board. Palani and Van Vuuren have joined the ICC top board for the first time, while Usmani managed to retain his place.

Khawaja, a veteran administrator from Singapore, finished fourth with 23 votes. The fifth candidate in the contest, Mahinda Vallipuram (Malaysia), got only 19 votes.

Khawaja, a lawyer by profession, had earlier served as the interim ICC chairman after Shashank Manohar stepped down from the post in 2020. He N. Also served as deputy chairman under several chiefs like Srinivasan, Greg Barclay and Jay Shah.

Imran Khawaja was also considered a ‘troubleshooter’ for successfully steering the crucial talks between the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which led to the smooth conduct of the men’s T20 World Cup match in Colombo.

USA Cricket and Cricket Canada are still under suspension. In such a situation, only 43 out of 45 associate members eligible to vote could cast their votes in this election held every two years. Each eligible member was allowed to cast three votes, so a total of 129 votes were cast.

After Khawaja leaves the post, ICC will now have to appoint a new vice-president. It is expected that one of the three newly elected associate directors will be selected for the post before the four-day conference ending on July 11.

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