Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) secretary for fixtures and publicity Sumod Damodar has been elected into the International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executives Committee (CEC).
Damodar, who becomes Botswana’s first representative in the highest structures of the ICC was voted into the CEC at the recent ICC Annual Conference in London, United Kingdom.
Damodar, who was among six candidates contesting for the three elective positions in the CEC, was voted alongside Neil Speight of Bermuda and Betty Timmer of Netherlands.
Damodar’s election has pleased the BCA, who defined it as a milestone for cricket’s developing countries.
“This is a proud moment for Botswana and cricket’s developing countries. Usually, it is the representatives of the prominent cricketing countries who make it into the CEC, so, this is some great news,” BCA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Girish Ramakrishna explained.
Speaking in an interview, Ramakrishna said as cricket’s developing countries, the election of Damodar means they now have some access to the ICC Board of Governors.
“This means as cricket’s developing countries, we can now start airing our concerns and issues directly to the CECs and to an extent the ICC Board. We are now very interested to know how his election will trickle down to us,” he said.
For Botswana, Ramakrishna said the election of Damodar also means the BCA will get first hand information on all the latest developments taking place in international cricket.
“It also shows that we have very capable administrators and ensures we are represented both continentally and internationally. If you remember, I was also elected as Development Director of the Africa Cricket Association (ACA) during their AGM at the end of April. This shows growth,” Ramakrishna concluded.
Damodar said as a member of the CEC, his main intention would be to represent the interest of Africa and other developing cricket countries very well.
“The CEC is a very important structure within the ICC. It is composed of all chief executive officers of ICC’s 12 full members. It is the link between the ICC Board and other structures such as the development committee, which mainly deals with cricket in developing countries. Now as a member of both the development committee and the CEC, this means we now have direct access to the powers that be,” he explained.
While acknowledging that Botswana will indeed have access to first hand information from the ICC, Damodar, however, said his intention was to represent all developing countries as fairly as possible.
