Mustafa Kamal resigns as ICC president after World Cup final ceremony snub

AHM Mustafa Kamal has announced his resignation as president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) complaining that its constitution has been breached.Kamal said his decision to resign as ICC president was ‘final’ and ‘not negotiable’ in a press conference in Dhaka organised just after he returned from Australia on Wednesday.Kamal said he was stepping down in protest against the ‘flagrant violation’ of the ICC constitution. His term was to end this June.He also said according to clause 3.3 of the ICC constitution, only the president has the right to hand the trophy to the winners of a match like the World Cup final.“I was supposed to present the trophy to the winners after the Melbourne final on Mar 29. But I couldn’t do that.”Kamal claimed he was not allowed to present the trophy to the captain of winning team in the final as an issue was made of some of his comments after the Bangladesh-India quarterfinal match.“From here on, I will speak as the former president of the ICC,” he said after announcing his resignation.“It is not possible to work with those who will violate the constitution. I want to let the people of the world know this,” he added.Kamal was critical of the ‘controversial’ umpiring decisions in the Bangladesh-India match at Melbourne Cricket Ground.He had called the ICC as ‘Indian Cricket Council’ and said he would step down as president, if needed, after the match.In response, ICC Chief Executive David Richardson, in a statement issued the following day, hit back at Kamal for his comments and said the remarks were ‘very unfortunate’.Then a massive spat erupted between Kamal and ICC Chairman N Srinivasan, who violated ICC practice and presented the World Cup to winners Australia at Melbourne last Sunday.Normally, ICC presidents do the honours, but Srinivasan used Kamal’s outburst against poor umpiring in the India-Bangladesh match and got others to support his decision to present the trophy at the presentation ceremony.Kamal was not on the dais during the ceremony and Srinivasan was booed heavily by sections of the 93,000 strong crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.He had earlier threatened to reveal some of ICC’s ‘dark secrets’ after the spat.