Sydney, July 1 (ANI): Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has vowed to fight on to become world cricket vice-president despite his embarrassing rejection by Africa and Asia.
Ex-ICC chief Malcolm Speed has described the rejection as a "disgrace and insult" to Australian and New Zealand cricket.
Howard was due to fly home from Singapore after African and Asian Test nations broke with protocol by refusing to approve his candidacy at a board meeting.
"I won't be withdrawing. Even in private discussions they are very reluctant to give a particular reason. It's a very unusual situation," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Howard as telling Sky Sports.
Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Jack Clarke said: "(I'm) gutted and incredibly disappointed that a man of John Howard's stature has been knocked off for this job."
"If you keep having processes that don't work, or are not allowed to work, I am not too sure where they go from there," he added.
Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket had already expressed their deep disappointment and said they would resubmit a candidate by August 31.
"The rejection is a symptom of the wider malaise that afflicts world cricket and its dysfunctional governing body," Speed wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The countries that voted him down want a compliant figure who will do their bidding," he added.
The Herald's Peter Roebuck said "no one emerges with the slightest credit from the debacle", in a front-page commentary.
"As far as other ICC nations were concerned, the nomination was provocative. They regard Howard as a backwoodsman; about as progressive as an umbrella," he wrote.
The Australian's Malcolm Conn said the bid "failed purely on racial lines, much to the embarrassment of a sport which continues to shred its scant credibility on a regular basis".
New Zealand Herald chief sports writer David Leggat blamed Cricket Australia for spearheading Howard's push.
"If CA and NZC (New Zealand Cricket) didn't see this embarrassment coming, they were seriously caught with their pants down," he wrote. (ANI)
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