Sports

Sports

New ICC boss focuses on Zimbabwe

South African Percy Sonn has promised support for Zimbabwe after taking over as president of the International Cricket Council. Sonn, who took the position on Friday, told the ICC Business Forum he was planning an early visit to Zimbabwe.

Percy Sonn

"Cricket is stronger than it has ever been," said the 56-year-old.

"But at the same time it is not without its issues. Zimbabwe has seen many of its players walk away from the national side and Zimbabwe cricket is weaker." Sonn, who has taken over from Pakistan's Ehsan Mani, said he wanted to see the challenges facing the game there first hand.

It empowers the Robert Mugabe-controlled Zanu-PF regime to appoint seven of the 12 board members for a four-year term, rendering them unaccountable to any of the country's cricket stakeholders.Only five members will be appointed by provincial associations, and they will be outnumbered by the political appointees. Sonn emerged as a leading cricket administrator in his native country when he served as vice-president at the Western Province Cricket Board in the mid-1970s.

He played a crucial role during the transfer to the post-apartheid regime and eventually served as president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa for three years until 2003.

That same year, however, he was involved in an embarrassing incident as his country hosted the World Cup. He was forced to apologise for being drunk in the hospitailty area during a group match at Boland Park. That incident has long been forgotten, though.

President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki offered his congratulations to Sonn, and national team captain Graeme Smith said: "We are confident his leadership will do much towards world cricket meeting the challenges that face all of us."