DHAKA: The International Cricket Council (ICC) was left red-faced on Wednesday when its president Mustafa Kamal resigned claiming he was snubbed at the presentation ceremony after Sunday’s World Cup final in Melbourne.

Kamal accused the ICC of behaving ‘unlawfully’ after he was barred from making the presentation. He said he was blocked because he refused to withdraw an incendiary allegation of match-fixing.

The Bangladeshi national had said after his country’s World Cup quarter-final defeat by India that there was ‘no quality in the umpiring’ and suggested the result had been ‘pre-arranged’.

The claim drew a sharp rebuke from ICC chief executive David Richardson and Kamal later complained that he had been deprived of his ‘right’ as the head of the governing body to present the trophy to the winners, Australia, in Melbourne last Sunday.

Instead that honour went to India’s Narayanaswami Srinivasan, who took over as ICC chairman last year and who was booed at the ceremony.

“I resign right at this moment. I am no longer ICC president,” Kamal told reporters at the airport in Dhaka, where he arrived on Wednesday from Singapore. “The main reason for my resignation is that I can’t work with those who can act unconstitutionally and unlawfully.”

The ICC confirmed that Kamal had resigned in a letter to the organisation but said the outgoing president had cited ‘personal’ reasons and had not made any complaint against any individual.

Kamal’s position has been largely ceremonial since Srinivasan took office as ICC chairman last year.

On Wednesday he launched an extraordinary attack on the Indian national, calling him ‘rotten’ and ‘controversial’ and suggesting the ICC could stand for ‘Indian Cricket Council’.

“I feel bad even to mention his name,” he said. “If that man is in charge of cricket, how will cricket run?”

Srinivasan was forced to quit as head of India’s cricket board over a corruption inquiry involving his son-in-law.

Kamal, who is a government minister in Bangladesh, had earlier threatened to quit over the umpiring of the quarter-final.

He said he had been told he would only be allowed to present the trophy if he withdrew his claim of bias.

“I will not withdraw the statement because it was the sentiment of 160 million people,” Kamal said, referring to the population of Bangladesh.

“Then they told me, if you can’t submit an apology or withdraw the statement, you can’t present the trophy,” Kamal said. “I told them during the meeting that I did not speak against any particular person or a country. Why should I apologise? I am the president of the ICC, to whom would I seek apology?”

Emotions in cricket-mad Bangladesh ran high after the 109-run defeat by India in the team’s first-ever World Cup quarter-final.

Fans wept openly in the streets and burnt an effigy of Pakistan umpire Aleem Dar, who supervised the match along with England’s Ian Gould.

Kamal pitched himself into controversy less than two weeks ago when he criticised the umpires in the quarter-final, and questioned their partiality, over a disputed no-ball against India batsman Rohit Sharma.

Sharma was caught in the deep and Aleem deemed it was an above waist-height no-ball though replays contradicted his opinion.

“Everyone saw what happened during the Bangladesh-India match ... India has influenced the outcome of the match using its position [in the ICC],” Kamal said. “From now on, I am a former president of the ICC. I would have reacted similarly had it happened to any other country.”

Kamal also called for a clean-up of the ICC, saying cricket should be ‘run by people who are holy and who believe in honesty’.

The ICC confirmed in a statement that Kamal had tendered his resignation ‘with immediate effect’ in a letter to Richardson.

“Mr Kamal said he was stepping down on personal grounds and offered his apologies to all associated with the ICC, while adding that he had no complaints to make against anyone,” said the statement.

The ICC said the vacant ceremonial position of president will be discussed during the forthcoming board meeting at its headquarters in Dubai on April 15 and 16.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015

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