LONDON, April 26: The ICC president-elect David Morgan has verified that the decision to put Malcolm Speed on gardening leave for the last two months of his contract as chief executive was a result of a “fundamental breakdown” in the relationship between him, Ray Mali, the president, and some of the executive board and not, as generally suggested, Speed’s handling of issues with regard to the ICL.

Morgan, speaking at Lord’s, said the breakdown had come about over a number of issues, and insisted they pre-dated the executive board meeting in Dubai in March when Speed declined to attend the press conference in protest over the ICC decision to take no action against Zimbabwe.

“It’s not been [a problem] for years but, yes, for some months,” Morgan said. “It pre-dates the March meeting but it doesn’t pre-date the death of Percy Sonn. Matters take some time to come to the surface.”

However, he refused to spell out which members of the executive were involved and how many. “I’m not prepared to reveal the names of the other board members. I’m unprepared to go into the details of the other issues.”—Agencies